


The Girl Behind The Villain

by SyndromeVoorhees



Category: The Incredibles (2004)
Genre: Adventure, Backstory, Evil, F/M, Romance, Scheming, Superpowers, Villains, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-31
Updated: 2015-03-28
Packaged: 2017-11-02 19:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 59,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/372458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyndromeVoorhees/pseuds/SyndromeVoorhees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To Buddy Pine she was his best friend, to Syndrome she was his most trustworthy assistant, Mirage wasn't the first girl in his life. She's the missing link between Syndrome and Buddy. Backstory as to how Syndrome became the villain in the first place and unshown events that happened during and after the movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How They Met

**Author's Note:**

> Totally love Syndrome and have yet to see a good fic that isn't Synlet(Syndrome/Violet) that properly explains Buddy Pine and how he came to be Syndrome and get to where he is in the movie. This is my attempt to fill in all the unanswered questions and fill in the gap of what happened to him over the thirteen some odd years of him going from being Incrediboy to Syndrome and what happens after the events of the movie as well. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.

Black and white painted fingernails furiously typed away on the lit up keyboard. Each hit of the keys echoed throughout the empty room, she was the only one who still used a keyboard with keys, not that she doubted her bosses touch screen keyboards he had made himself, but she just liked the feel of the keys beneath her slender fingers and it made typing a lot easier with less errors.

She blinked her sore hazel eyes and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. It took her three hours, which was more than three times faster than it would take anyone else to do, but she finally finished reprogramming the security system. Sighing in triumph she ran her hand through her short brown hair.

The more she thought about tomorrow the more she realized how excited she was for it. The new employees were finally being allowed onto the island. That meant two new bodies to help her get all the work she's been doing by herself over the last year, and over one hundred new goons to help do the millions of other things that still needed to be done.

The door behind her opened letting in light from the corridor and she could hear his footsteps drawing closer. She spun around in her chair to face him, his orange hair standing up like flames.

"All done." She stood from her chair folding up her keyboard and putting it in its velvet carrying pouch and stepped to the side. She wore a long sleeved black v-necked shirt with white cuffs and stitching with baggy matching cargo pants. He looked her up and down with a smirk like he always did and sat in her chair.

"How can you wear those pants?" He mocked eyeing the large pockets. "I can't even see your feet."

"How can your wear that? Spandex is evil." She eyed him wanting to tug on the shiny black and white material, but she knew he didn't like to be touched, so she kept her hands to herself. Her eyes unfortunately set on his and she had to blink away. No matter how long she knew him his fierce penetrating blue eyes always seemed to pierce right through her locking her in place.

"You made it." He flexed his arm.

"But _you_ designed it." She glared at the cape attached to his shoulders. Capes were bad. When she agreed to make his suit for him she did her research as she always did and found that over sixty percent of supers deaths were caused by 'suit malfunctions' the less demeaning way of saying 'they were stupid and their cape got sucked into or caught on something'. He shrugged his shoulders knowing what she was getting at and turned his attention to the computer screen quickly scrolling through over a hundred pages of programming she just typed.

"Brilliant. As usual you've outdone yourself. Let's just hope our new assistants are _half_ as good as you." Syndrome smiled his crooked smile at her and she purposely focus on his freckles beneath his eye mask avoiding his eyes. He stood from the chair walking out of the room with his usual prided gait. He stopped in the doorway and turned back to her.

"You should take the rest of the night off. Actually get some sleep for once." He stepped out into the brightly lit corridor. "That's an order." He said firmly and walked off as the doors shut behind him.

Lex let out a small laugh once the door was closed. Yeah right like she'd get any sleep, there was too much going on in her head and she knew it would take forever for her mind to shut up. She sat back at the computer and brought her keyboard back out lining it up with the touch screen on the control panel. She spent the next hour looking at all the information on the two coming to aid her and Syndrome. The first was a man, twenty five, his name was Daniel Norris Avian. He majored in building and programming computers, but he secretly built robots. He would be in charge of overseeing the construction and programming of the Omni-Droids.

The other was Mirage, twenty three, her real name wasn't listed. She had powers yet she wasn't a super. The NSA thought her powers weren't useful enough to help fight crime. If someone was weak, tired, or disoriented she could choose make them see a mirage of what they feared, loved, hated, or wanted. She worked as a secretary at the NSA and promised to help them locate the supers that Syndrome wanted to test the Omni-Droids on.

Lex finally went back to her room changing into her pajamas and sat in her bed leaning against the headboard. The walls were painted black with white shelves and a large dark oak bed sat in the middle of the room with matching nightstands and on either side. It was only two in the morning, and they would be arriving at eight. Taking her glasses off she set them on the dark oak nightstand beside the bed. She laughed out loud knowing that Syndrome told her to sleep when she knew very well that he was in his lab working on his final designs for the Omni-Droid. She could imagine him hunched over his workbench drawing out schematics.

She had known him when he was still Buddy Pine, the super obsessed inventive little boy. They met when she was twelve and he was eleven.

**Lex lived in the bad part of Municiberg and her family was rather poor. She had taken a liking to fixing the appliances around the house since her parents refused to buy new ones. She would raid the dumpster behind the local electronics stores for spare parts and such. It was there that she ran into Buddy quite often since he collected things to make his inventions with, which his parents refused to acknowledge. They became friends and always helped each other find the parts they needed.**

**They even collaborated every now and then and he made her an electric scooter to ride around so she didn't have to walk all the way to and from the alley. She would always poke fun at him for being so obsessed with Mr. Incredible. Her favorite super was Elastigirl, they often argued about who was the better super but she usually let him win.**

**She spent most of her time in the alley making things doing all she could to avoid going home not wanting to deal with her parent's drunken ranting and fighting. A few times Buddy invited her over to his house and he'd show her some of his plans for future inventions or his vast collection of Mr. Incredible memorabilia. After awhile she found that she really liked Buddy but she wasn't sure if he felt the same way. She was only twelve but he was the first real friend she had. Even at school she had barely any friends. It was a large school and Buddy was a grade below her so she rarely saw him there.**

**One day on her way to the alley to get parts to fix her parents TV she saw Buddy flying past her and he landed a few feet in front of her. She noticed the bulky rocket boots he had on along with his usual Incredi-Boy costume.**

**"Lex look what I made! Rocket boots! I can fly now, just like a super!" He sounded so excited. She couldn't help but smile at him.**

**"They look heavy." She eyed his boots skeptically.**

**"Well they're only my first version. The next version will be even better! Oh I can make you some! Then we can fly around together and fight crime!" He smiled big and pulled a black eye mask out of his pocket and handed it to her. She took it and blushed as she put it on.**

**"What if I don't want to be a good guy… I'd rather be the villain." Buddy's expression turned into confusion.**

**"Why would you want to be the bad guy? They always lose, supers always win." He took a step back and eyed her strangely.**

**"I don't know, the bad guys always get to do all the fun stuff and they don't have to play by the rules. How about I'll be the bad guy and you have to catch me." She smiled and he smiled back instantly forgetting about their argument.**

**"That'll be too easy." He smirked placing his hands on his hips.**

**"Then what's stopping you?" She taunted knowing he'd take the bait.**

**"Nothing, how about just to make it fair I'll give you a ten second head start?" He said pulling his gloves tight and she nodded. "Ok ready… go!"**

**Lex took off down the alley on her scooter. She could hear him counting behind her. "Two, four, six, ten!" Quickly looking over her shoulder she saw him take off on his rocket boots after her and she turned down another alley. Before he rounded the corner behind her she jumped off her scooter and hid behind a trashcan.**

**"Come out come out wherever you are." He landed a few feet from her hiding spot and she picked up a rock and threw it across the alley clanking against the trashcans on the other side.**

**When she saw that his back was to her she ran past him and rounded the corner and kept running until arms suddenly wrapped around her from behind and she felt herself being lifted up off the ground.**

**"Gotcha! Good guys always win!" He laughed in her ear taking them higher. She gripped his arms tightly.**

**"Buddy…" She said shakily as she looked down noticing how high up they were.**

**"Relax Lex don't you trust me?" And soon the rooftops were in view and they landed on top of one of the buildings. "See." He released his grip on her and she reluctantly released him as well.**

**"I trust you, I just don't know how well those boots of yours will hold out." She eyed the unprotected wires on his boots.**

**"I wouldn't be flying around in them if they weren't safe. These are what I've been working on this whole time." He smiled proudly putting an arm around Lex's shoulders walking her to the edge of the rooftop that overlooked the city. They stood there in silence looking off into the distance.**

**"What other things are you planning on making?" Lex asked breaking the awkward silence suddenly aware of how close Buddy was to her and turned to look him in the eye.**

**"Well… I've been working on a few things…" He stared back into her eyes and blushed. "One of them is for you."**

**"Really? What is it?" She asked her eyes lighting up.**

**"I can't tell you it's a surprise." He smiled and pulled the pencil out of her hair making it fall out of its little bun and into her face. She shied away from him and they both put their hands on the ledge almost touching fingers. They both looked away from each other nervously letting their eyes wander to the tall buildings out in front of them as their hands met on the ledge. There was the sound of police siren coming around the corner making them jump and their hands separated.**

**They looked at each other and laughed nervously staring after the police cars that were chasing an unknown car. "I wonder if they'll catch 'em." Buddy flew into the air to get a better view. "Hey! I see the Incredibile! It's Mr. Incredible! I should go see if he needs some help!" Buddy flew off leaving Lex on the rooftop calling after him.**

**Lex stood there staring after him sadly. She found a ladder on the side of the building and retrieved her scooter. After she gathered up the parts she needed she headed home. As she sat in her living room anxious to fix the TV before her dad got home she pondered what Buddy could be making for her. If he was making something for her that meant he liked her didn't he?**

**Her thoughts were interrupted as she tested the TV flipping through the channels and saw on the news that Bomb Voyage had robbed a vault at the bank and gotten away from Mr. Incredible. In the background she could see Buddy being put into the back of a police car looking rather upset. Her heart stopped fearing the worse. She quickly screwed the back panel onto the TV and grabbed her scooter and headed to Buddy's house.**

**When she got there he still wasn't back and his parents weren't there either. The next day was Monday and she did her best all night to convince herself that he was ok, but when she didn't see him at lunch she began to panic and left school to go to his house. Luckily his parents worked during the day and after knocking on the door a few times it finally opened revealing a very angry looking Buddy. His eyes had lost their bright spark and was replaced with something she couldn't recognize.**

**Lex without hesitating rushed to him and hugged him tight. "Buddy what happened? I saw the news and I though Bomb Voyage had hurt you and…"**

**"Lex… you were right…" She took a step back and stared at him in confusion.**

**"What are you talking about?" He just stared back at her and led her inside and up to his room. She gasped as she entered his room. What once was a shrine to Mr. Incredible had been completely destroyed making her notice that Buddy wasn't wearing his usual Incredi-Boy costume. "Buddy what happened?" He was silent with his back to her. "Buddy…" She put a hand on his shoulder.**

**"Fly home Buddy, I work alone… that's what he said to me. To me! I was only offering to help!" Lex realized who he was talking about. "You said you'd rather be the villain. Then let's _be_ the villain!" She was scared now. What could they possibly do?**

**Lex finished middle school and went into high school. On her first day she was surprised to see Buddy in her advanced math class. He smiled his crooked smile at her when she walked in the room and motioned for her to sit next to him. Buddy had tested out of middle school so he could graduate high school with her. They had most of their classes together and they were always plotting and re-plotting trying to come up with a master plan for his revenge on Mr. Incredible all while Buddy still worked on inventions and Lex helped. She was the only one who knew about his plans and she liked it that way.**

**A week before graduating from high school he finally came up with the ultimate plan. Soon she began to notice his random changed in behavior when he was working on things involving his plans for revenge, but didn't really think anything of it. He sold his first invention, a special explosive device, before going into college. They both had scholarships but Lex couldn't afford to stay in an apartment and refused to stay in the dorm. So she got a job to pay for rent. When Buddy found out he sold another one of his inventions and gave her half the money and forced her to quit her job because he said needed her to help him with his inventions and plans, but she knew it was really his own way of showing that he cared.**

**Their second year in college is when Buddy really started to change the most. His darker attitude really started to take over. That's when he finally gave his darker persona a name, Syndrome. It was almost as if he was two different people at times. He started selling more of his inventions and soon started building his lab on an island he had bought with money from selling his inventions.**

**Lex never got the chance to be _close_ with Buddy again like she did the day he flew her up to the roof. He was always busy doing schoolwork or inventing. After they graduated his new lab and most of his base had been finished and they moved all their things to Nomanisan. With all the new resources at their disposal bigger and better inventions were made.**

**After being there for a month Syndrome gave her the design for his suit and after researching super suits she made sure to make his suit out of a material that was almost impenetrable. She tried her best to convince him to get rid of the cape but he was stubborn and always got his way no matter what.**

In the beginning she hated that she was the one that put the whole villain idea in his head, but now all these years later she was glad it was her and not someone else. She turned the lights off with the remote on her nightstand and stared into the darkness for a few moments. The intercom on the wall near the bed switched on snapping her out of her trance.

"Why aren't you asleep?" Syndrome asked sounding slightly annoyed.

"Why aren't _you_ asleep?" She mocked crossing her arms across her chest.

"Lex go to sleep already! You've finished what I asked of you and more! What else is there to do? Nothing! Now go to bed!" He sounded more concerned than he did angry. Little things like this let Lex know that he still cared, even if he showed it in strange ways.

"If there is nothing to be done then why are you still awake?" She smirked and stuck her tongue out at the intercom.

"I saw that… Alexandria Jayne Prithor _please_ get some sleep. You've barely slept in the last week." Lex cringed when he said her full name and slumped against the headboard for a moment before straightening back up.

"You, Buddy Pine, need to stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself. I'm not even tired and I have plenty of things to keep me busy." He was silent. She knew she crossed the line calling him by his real name, but it was only fair he had done it to her first.

A faint hiss echoed throughout the room. "Goodnight Lex." Was his emotionless response before the intercom shut off. Lex rolled her eyes knowing he'd do this and quickly pulled a gasmask out of her nightstand and slipped it on before the knockout gas reached her. She hoped he had already stopped watching the camera. After the first time he used the knockout gas to put her to sleep she made sure to have a gasmask handy incase he decided to do it again.

Her reason for not getting any sleep lately was that Buddy's birthday was in a month. Yes Buddy's birthday not Syndrome's. Syndrome didn't recognize Buddy's birthday and decided to only celebrate the day that he became Syndrome. She was usually pretty good over the years at tricking him into having nothing to do the day of Buddy's birthday and _try_ to do something special for him. Unfortunately last year he purposely planned a meeting with some weapon contractors and he was gone on the other side of the world. This year was going to be different.

Her plan was to get everything that absolutely needed to be done before Buddy's birthday and make sure he had the entire day free. The only thing left to do was to figure out what exactly to do with him that day. Al least this year luck was on her side, he was so distracted with working on the Omni-Droids and tracking down the locations of the retired supers that she was sure he wouldn't notice the date when it came and catch him off guard.

The knockout gas was finally sucked back out of her room and she removed her gasmask glad that Syndrome had obviously stopped watching the camera. She grabbed a notebook and pen knowing that if she put any of her plans on her computer that he would find them eventually. She slipped on a pair of slippers and headed down the dimly lit corridor and into the kitchen to brainstorm and enjoy a late night snack.


	2. Strange Happenings In The Lab

Lex stood at the end of the large corridor as Syndrome approached her. She wore clothes similar to the night before and had her hair up in a bun held together with metal chopsticks.

"You didn't get any sleep at all did you?" He raised a masked eyebrow at her.

"I got two hours." She shrugged as they walked into the large entry room where their two new assistants awaited them with the head of security at their side.

"I can't believe you hid a gasmask in your nightstand." He shook his head in disbelief.

"I knew you'd try and knock me out. I always plan ahead." She smirked and he rolled his eyes at her.

"Which is why I trust you the most." He smiled as he handed a small envelope to her.

"What's this?" She asked surprised.

"Just a little something I need you to do for me. You're the only one who can know about it. Read it later." He lowered his voice at they approached the three waiting for them. Syndrome nodded at the head of security and he nodded back.

"Good morning Travis." Lex greeted him and he nodded again. Mirage stood closest to Lex. Her white hair running past her shoulders and her head looked too big for her tall slender figure that was covered in a very tight dark grey pant suit. Daniel stood on the other side of Travis his short spikey brown hair sticking out in every which way. He was very tall yet had some muscle hidden beneath his collared black shirt and matching slacks.

Mirage held her hand out to Syndrome who looked her over once and ignored the gesture turning his attention to Daniel. Mirage looked insulted and then quickly shook it off.

"You must be Mr. Avian. I hope you're ready to work. Follow me." Daniel nodded and obediently followed him out of the room. Mirage stared after them in disbelief and Lex could see Travis hiding a smirk beneath his visor. Syndrome never addressed someone unless he had a use for them, and Mirage wasn't hired to help him she was hired to help Lex.

"So… Mirage. You think you can handle helping Syndrome's right hand girl?" Lex smiled at her own title she just gave herself. Mirage finally looked at her.

"Is he always…" She trailed off.

"Yes he is. It's nothing personal. He just has no interest in you since you're here to help me and not him. You're my problem not his. Travis you can go now he's gone." Lex put her hand on his shoulder and he relaxed.

"Thanks Lex." He took his visor off to reveal his stunning emerald green eyes. "I'll see you later then." He smiled back at her eyeing the envelope in her hand that Syndrome had given her before walking off down the corridor. Lex quickly put the envelope in her pocket.

"What was that all about?" Mirage asked staring after him.

"Oh nothing. I always send him away. No need to have him follow me around _all_ the time." Lex explained as she began leading them down a different corridor. Lex could tell Mirage was bothered by Syndrome's reaction to her only to find it pleased her. She must have been the kind of girl that always had all the male attention on her.

The day seemed to drag on as Lex showed Mirage how to sort and properly categorized all of Syndrome's inventions, ideas, schematics, and what not he'd come up with on a daily basis. Most of them were just random words or small doodles, but they were all significant. Lately he'd been mostly working on the Omni-Droid plans and something called Zero Point Energy.

After she thought Mirage had gotten the hang of it she let her have a thirty minute break. Lex snuck off to her room and quickly sat on the lounge chair in the corner and pulled the envelope out of her pocket and read it quickly.

Syndrome was entrusting her to come up with a backup plan just incase anything went wrong with the Omni-Droid plan. She was free to use anything and everything to do it so long as Syndrome didn't know the details of it so that way it wouldn't be found by anyone and be completely fool proof. Lex thought it odd that he would even doubt his original plan since he'd been working on it for so long but he always liked to play it safe. When she left her room Travis was waiting outside for her.

"I'll tell you what it says later." She said under her breath.

"Actually that's not why I was here." He said hesitantly.

"What happened?" She asked looking up at him over the rim of her glasses.

"It's Mirage… I was walking past the break room when…" He cut himself short as if afraid to finish his sentence.

"What did she do?" She said becoming annoyed.

"She broke a rule… _food_ rule." He replied making her eyes go wide.

"Where is Syndrome?" She demanded her hand at her side pocket as she rushed down the long corridor.

"Last I checked he was still in the mechanics lab with Mr. Avian." He said as they both jumped into the pod shaped transport.

"For her sake he better still be in there." She said through gritted teeth. The transport stopped a few feet away from the break room. Her hand never left her side pocket. When she entered all the soldiers were sitting at the opposite side of the room as Mirage as if afraid to be associated with her and what she was doing. She sat innocently and obliviously eating a bowl of strawberries covered in sugar. Lex could smell them as she approached her making her heartbeat faster in a panic. The soldiers in the room all watched amused and afraid as Lex grabbed the bowl out of her hands and threw it into the trash quickly hitting the button on the wall burning its contents.

Lex removed her hand from her pocket now wearing a glove on her hand. Mirage stared back at her in confusion and Lex pulled a metal chopstick out of her hair and held it threateningly towards her in her gloved hand.

"What was that for?" Mirage backed away from her confused. Lex quickly hit her chopstick on the edge of the counter and a small electrical whir came from it. At that sound several soldiers across the room quickly shuffled out of the other door while others sat and watched.

"You know there is a rulebook you are forced to read before coming here for a reason!" Lex yelled taking a step closer to Mirage who was now backed against a table. "Absolutely no outside food! Are you trying to kill him?" An electric spark shot out of the end of her metal chopstick at her barely missing her arm making her jump back.

"I don't know what the big deal is. It's just strawberries!" She yelled back at her.

"You imbecile! He's deathly allergic to them! They are his favorite and they'll put him into anaphylactic shock!" Lex lunged forward and hit her hard in the ribs sending a large jolt of electricity through her making her black out and crumple to a heap on the floor.

Lex quickly hit the chopstick on the edge of a nearby chair and the electric whir of electricity disappeared and she put it back into her bun. Travis stood behind her staring in shock at Mirage passed out on the floor before quickly recomposing himself.

"You two take her to her quarters to sleep it off." He pointed to the two nearest soldiers and they each took her by an arm and dragged her off. Right as they were walking out the door Syndrome entered and quickly took a step to the side the let them through. He stared after them for a moment before turning his attention to Lex.

"So what did I miss?" He asked playfully eyeing the glove on Lex's hand. "What did she do to deserve that?" Lex was surprised when he came up to her and pulled one of the chopsticks out of her hair rolling it around in his gloved hands.

"She violated a rule. Outside food." Lex explained calmly to everyone's surprise.

"Oh really? What did she have that would upset you so much? I could hear you yelling all the way down the hall." He smirked. Lex knew he already knew what had happened he just wanted to hear her say it.

"Strawberries…" She said glaring at him holding her hand out to him to take back her chopstick.

"Aww and you didn't save me any?" He joked smiling back at her rolling the piece of metal between his hands. "But last time was so much fun." He laughed making Lex pull a small medical box out of her pocket and placing it on the table tapping her fingers impatiently on it's surface.

"Do you always carry that with you?" He asked looking amused.

"Why wouldn't I?" At that he smiled and took a step closer to her leaving very little space between them, something very uncharacteristic of him to do, and he placed the chopstick back in her hair.

"Little things like that are why I will always trust you over everyone else." He said low enough so only the two of them could hear then quickly turned on his heels and walked swiftly out of the room.

Lex's heart was racing, only this time it wasn't from anger or fear, but from desire. Desire to be even closer to him. It was a forbidden thing for her. She promised herself in college that she wouldn't pursue being with him anymore. He never let anyone really be close to him emotionally or physically, but lately he seemed to be slowly getting closer and closer to her as they worked together over the past year. Just the few interactions from today were very noticeable.

She stood there in a daze until Travis cleared his throat loudly bringing her back to reality. "Lex… hello?" She turned to him and he rushed to her to sit her down in the nearest chair. "Well that was definitely… different…" He said aloud as Lex rested her head in her hand.

"You can say that again." Lex shook her head trying to clear it feeling stupid that such a little gesture from him could affect her like that.

"You know it wouldn't hurt if you just fina.."

"No!" She cut him off before he could finish. "How many times do I have to tell you there is no way I'm doing that, I am not going to turn myself into a distraction. He's worked to hard to get this far. Maybe one day when all of this is over… maybe… I'll try. But it's not like he doesn't already know how I feel. He's not stupid." She trailed off partially annoyed that he brought it up again. He seemed rather eager for her to be with Syndrome. But she knew there was no way it was going to happen, at least not any time soon.

"Sorry… it just doesn't make any sense to me. You never did tell me what happened in high school." He pointed out as he began shooing the other soldiers from the break room.

"Now is not the time to be discussing such things. I have too much work to do. I'm going to go back to my office then assist in the lab for a while. I'll call for you later to discuss a few things I'm going to need your help with." She explained standing from her chair. Travis nodded obediently and without another word he left the break room leaving her there with only a few other goons. They ate silently staring at her with fear in their eyes.

She opened the small medical box on the table and checked all the supplies in it before placing it back in her pocket. It was an emergency kit containing epinephrine, a form of adrenaline, injections incase Buddy somehow came across his weakness and decided to _indulge_ himself.

Lex quickly grabbed herself a sprite from the fridge and headed down the corridor to her office. Once she was done sorting through Syndrome's papers and design schematics for his Zero Point Energy, she met him in his lab and they began working on the equations and quantum mechanics for this new invention.

For the first hour he sat across the table from her rarely looking up at her. She was so focused on what she was doing she jumped in her chair when she felt his hand on her shoulder.

"Twitchy today?" He asked taking the notepad from her and going over the equations.

"Eh the whole Mirage thing kind of threw me off a bit." At least she was halfway telling the truth.

"These look good. They should work." He said motioning to the notebook before setting it back down on the table. "So do I need to find you a new assistant already?" She shook her head in response and tensed up as he got down to her level and rested his arms on the armrest of her chair their eyes meeting.

Lex attempted to look away from him but he pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and lightly placed his hand on her cheek keeping her locked in his gaze. _This can't be happening, there is no possible way this is happening right now..._ She felt detached from her body. _I must've of fallen asleep._ She tried to convince herself even though his hand felt so warm against her skin.

"It must be really difficult for you to be around me as much as you are knowing how you feel about me." He stared back at her only getting a blank confused expression. "You are right you know. I've known this whole time… all these years…" He waited impatiently for a response from her and found only shock and disbelief swarming in her eyes. Oh brilliant I broke her…

"Lex?" He shook her by the shoulders and she blinked.

"Even in my dreams I can't function when I look into your eyes." She smiled and put her hand on his cheek leaning in closer to him. He could feel her breath on his lips and quickly realized that she thought this was a dream. He was very tempted to take advantage of this interested in where it would lead as he imagined the possible outcomes.

"And what do we usually do in your dreams?" He smirked raising a curious masked eyebrow. She ran her finger along the edge of his mask and he grabbed her hand before she had the chance to remove it. Her eyes went wide and she quickly pulled away from him.

"Oh shit! I'm awake, and I just… you just…" Lex blushed and quickly turned her chair around leaving her back to him. He turned her around to face him.

"Yes you're _awake_. Maybe you should start getting more sleep so you can better distinguish real life from your dreams." She looked away from his eyes and attempted to stand only to be pushed back into her chair. "Where do you think you're going? We're not finished here. We still have work to do." He smiled down at her making her take in a deep breath.

Lex closed her eyes and tried her best to calm herself and when she opened them Syndrome had pulled a small box out onto the table. In it was the few pieces of his Zero Point Energy glove that he had started on. She exhaled loudly glad that he had literally meant work.

Syndrome smiled to himself as he laid the contents of the box out on the table in front of them. Part of him wanted to go further with what he had started with Lex but the other part of him wanted to finish what she was really there for. The more determined side of him won knowing that Lex would always be there to test all of his 'What if?' questions about _them_. But that still didn't stop him from purposely making her uncomfortable the rest of the afternoon.

They worked together on his Zero Point Energy glove for the next two hours. Lex became more and more uneasy as Syndrome seemed to be getting closer and closer to her as he reached for parts and tools on the table. She knew he was deliberately reaching right in front of her making it hard for her to focus on what she was doing. They were almost completely finished constructing his glove when Syndrome reached for the same thing as her and he wrapped his hand around hers pulling her closer.

She slowly closed her eyes as he traced his free hand down her cheek. His hands were even warmer now that he had removed his gloves. She could feel his hot breath on her lips as he hesitated in front of her.

"Lex Mirage is awake now if you wish to see her." Travis's voice rang behind her through the intercom. She quickly opened her eyes to see an annoyed Syndrome glaring at the intercom behind her. He quickly dropped his hand from her cheek and released her before hitting the button on the intercom with such force she thought it might break.

"She'll be out in a minute!" He shouted back at Travis and turned to face her with his fierce blue eyes pinning her in place. Syndrome had no idea what he was doing or what had come over him, but now he wanted to finish what he had started. She stared back at him wide eyed. He hesitated for a moment unsure of what to do now.

"Oh screw it." He mumbled to himself and Lex stared at him confused for a moment before he pulled her to her feet. Pulling her close she took in a sharp breath and then their lips met and they latched onto eachother.

They both felt like time had froze. This was something that they both had never done, something that they had always wanted, something that they both thought was never going to happen, something that was usually robbed of them. But there they were, finally, lips locked and hearts ready to beat out of their chests. Neither of them wanted to let the moment end afraid to let go of the other. She was the first to let go, her arms fell limply to her sides in complete surrender.

He pulled her closer when he realized that he was the only thing keeping her on her feet. She swayed backwards and Syndrome followed being knocked off balance and he quickly wrapped an arm around her and caught himself with is free hand keeping her from hitting the floor. He released his arm around her laying her gently on the floor beneath him and he held himself above her with his hands on either side of her head. They were both breathing heavily and Syndrome laughed his body shaking above her. Lex looked up at him dazed. He was laughing and it wasn't the dark laughter her ears were so used to hearing, but the laugh of a boy she thought was lost, the laughter of Buddy Pine.

"Well I most certainly didn't expect that! Are you ok?" He looked her up and down and she nodded silently still trying to catch her breath. "Are you sure?" He asked and she shook her head making him raise a curious eyebrow. He experimentally leaned into her making her tense up beneath him. He let out a chuckle and slowly sat up on his knees straddling her.

Lex was lost in his piercing blue eyes again. She could see the wheels turning in his head knowing that he was considering all the things he could do to her and the possible outcomes. Her head was spinning as she thought the same things. After sitting above her for a moment he stood and helped her to her feet. She shook her head trying to clear it and looked at him blankly.

"Wow..." Was all she murmured and Buddy smiled back at her. He knew Travis was outside the lab waiting for her and he could finish the glove on his own, but he still wanted her to stay. Out of all the years he'd known her he'd wanted to be with her but he always let his obsession with revenge get in the way. What was so different about now? What sparked this to happen in the first place? He eyed her once more. She looked dazed and had that look on her face that said she wasn't sure if what just happened was real. He hesitantly led her to the door by her shoulders. She stopped at the door and her back was flush against is warm chest making her lean back into him. She was so confused and dazed, she hesitated at the door afraid that if she left she'd wake up from the dream she thought she was in.

"So... we can test the glove out sometime tomorrow." He said holding her closer not wanting to let her go.

"Tomorrow?" She asked sadly tempted to turn around but afraid of the result and in response he rested his head on hers.

"Possibly sooner..." He said hitting the button on the air lock door making it whoosh open sending in a burst of air. She was pushed into the airlock chamber and he reluctantly released her and took a step back from the doorway. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as the doors shut behind her.

Buddy leaned on the shut airlock doors and let out a long sigh before allowing himself to slide to the floor and rubbed his face with his hands. As much as he hated to admit it he wanted her, needed her. He couldn't remember a single time when she wasn't there for him. She'd been so patient never even attempting anything towards him when he knew that she wanted to be with him all these years.

"What am I doing?" He asked himself aloud running his hand through his hair. He listened until he heard the airlock doors open and close on the other side before getting to his feet. There were so many things to consider now that he had started things with her. Could he really finally be with her? Was it that easy or was he just having a temporary weakness? He didn't consider her a weakness. He knew that if anything ever went wrong with his plans and they came after him that she could take care of herself and she would always put the plan before _them_.

"I deserve this… I _need_ this…" He confirmed out loud to himself as he carefully pulled on his almost completed Zero Point Energy glove. He sat in his chair and began adjusting the little mechanisms in the glove.

Travis stared at Lex as she leaned against the wall outside the lab attempting to catch her breath.

"Are you ok?" He eyed her ready to catch her if she fell. There was a muffled sound from his earpiece and he pressed it into his ear with a look of shock on his face. "Say that again I don't think I heard you right… oh… wow… um thank you Charles." Travis looked wide-eyed back at Lex. She looked completely out if it.

"Let me guess. Everyone in the security room just saw that didn't they?" She looked up at him over the rim of her glasses and he nodded silently.

"I can't believe that just happened… I mean it's kind of ironic if you think about it…" He smiled at her and she smiled back. "So…?"

"Not right now Travis. Later, I promise we'll talk. But right now I'm very dazed, tired, and hungry. To the break room for now then we'll go and deal with Mirage." He nodded in agreement and they walked to the break room.

The rest of the day sort of dragged on for Lex. She really did need to start getting more sleep, but she refused to let herself get behind on anything and always wanted to be two steps ahead. Mirage was very good at keeping up with her, but it might have only been because she was afraid of Lex electrocuting her again. Around ten o'clock she walked Mirage back to her room.

"So I re-read the manual so I know all the rules so I don't accidentally break any of them again. But I have a question about rule number three." Mirage asked as they approached her door.

"Rule number three… that rule pretty much only applies to you since you're the only super that works here. But you understand…"

"No that's number four." Mirage cut Lex off in mid sentence. Lex raised an eyebrow at her.

"What?" Lex took the new employee booklet from Mirage's hand and flipped through the pages. "Rule number three, if anything ever goes wrong and you are captured you are to never mention Lex under any circumstances or you will be personally hunted down and terminated by Syndrome." She read aloud as she stared at the page in confusion. "Um when did you get this?"

"They sent it to me a few days before I arrived. Why?" Mirage asked eyeing her nervously.

"Just curious…" She trailed off. "Well have a good nights sleep and I'll see you in the morning, goodnight." Lex walked off before Mirage had a chance to say anything and she walked to her room. She took a quick shower and changed into a pair of black pajama bottoms and a white tank top. She kept her hair down for once and it looked a lighter brown in the fluorescent lights of her bathroom made it look a lighter brown as it hung just past her chin. There was a light knock on her door and she put on a pair of slippers before opening it.

"Now can we talk?" Travis asked anxiously standing in the doorway. Lex rolled her eyes and stepped aside to let him in. He was now in grey sweats with a matching t-shirt and his short dirty blonde hair was stuck to his head in the shape of his visor helmet. He sat in the chair closest to her bed as she made herself comfortable on her bed with her laptop.

"So first things first. I need your help with something that Syndrome wants me to do." She handed him the note that he had given her that morning and waited for him to read it.

"You know I'll help but what do you need me to do?" He handed it back to her and she put it in the top drawer of her nightstand.

Lex and Travis discussed her plans for making a hidden base that they could use incase anything went wrong with the Omni Droid plan or any other future plans. After figuring most of that out Lex filled him in on everything that happened in the lab with Syndrome. By the time he got to the security camera room Syndrome had already made all the lab videos restricted to anyone but him and Lex.

"Wow… I still can't believe that it finally happened." Travis said in awe.

"You think you have a hard time believing it. I'm still trying to convince myself it wasn't a dream." Lex shook her head as if trying to clear it.

"So now what?" He asked smiling deviously.

"I don't know… I'm so confused. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens next time we're alone. I doubt he'd do anything in front of everyone." She slumped back against the headboard. Travis sat back in his chair looking around the room suspiciously.

"Lex can he hear what we say in here?" He asked sounding afraid.

"No he can see us but I disabled the audio a few months ago so he can't hear anything unless he calls me on the intercom." She reassured him and he relaxed.

"Ok because I don't know what he'd do if he knew how much we talk about him." He explained staring directly into the camera in the corner above her bed.

"Don't worry, even if he did know he wouldn't do anything. He trusts you almost as much as I do." –Lex

"That's good to know... Well I'm off to bed then. You should get some sleep too." He suggested as he walked to the door and Lex shrugged in response. "Goodnight."

"Night." Lex replied as he closed the door behind him. The intercom next to her bed switched on the second she sat back down making her jump.

" _Finally_ I thought he was never going to leave." Syndrome chuckled through the intercom.

"Have you been watching us this whole time?" Lex asked slightly annoyed.

"Not the _entire_ time. Just the last thirty minutes or so… do you still need proof that what happened between us today was real?" He sounded unsure of himself and excited at the same time. She sat staring at the intercom in silence. "Well if you do please escort yourself to _my_ room." The intercom shut off leaving Lex sitting in shock.

She went through all the possibilities in her head of what could happen and why she should and shouldn't go. Without conscious decision her body must've taken action, because once she stopped arguing with herself she looked up to find herself standing outside his bedroom doors.


	3. Finally

Lex stood staring up at the large dark oak doors her hand barely resting on the 'S' shaped handle. She took in a deep breath and ran her fingers along the back of the door handle finding the fingerprint scanner. Her and Syndrome were the only ones with access to his room. She had only been in it once when they first moved to Nomanisan. There was a small electrical whir from the door as her fingers were scanned and the sound of mechanisms unlocking. The door opened slightly and she hesitated. Tracing the door handle with her fingers an anxious chill ran over her as she replayed what happened earlier in the lab. A small group of goons were walking down the corridor and they were whispering to each other as they passed her. Ignoring them she finally pushed the door open and stepped inside.

She looked around the dimly lit room. It was very similar to the layout of her room only there were more shelves and they were lined with mini prototypes of his inventions and action figures. She didn't see him anywhere so she sat in the nearest chair.

Syndrome stood in the shadows behind Lex. He silently came up behind her and she turned around to face him before he could sneak up on her.

"How do you do that?" He asked running a hand through his un-styled orange hair. She stared back at him as if he was a different person and he smirked. He had purposely kept his hair un-styled and had on just a normal pair of pajama pants and a tank top almost matching Lex's. She eyed him up and down and he stared into her hazel eyes trapping her.

"Is this too much for you? Want me to put my mask back on?" He joked making her relax a bit and she smiled back at him.

"No, it's just I haven't seen you out of your suit in so long…" She started to reach out to touch the freckles beneath his eyes and stopped herself pulling her hand back into her lap. Buddy eyed her curiously and took her by the wrist putting her hand on his cheek making her eyes go wide.

"What are you so afraid of? I'm as scared as you are." He chuckled nervously and released her hand and she took her hand back bringing her knees up to her chest and hugging them.

"This can't be happening…" Lex was doing the best to calm her breathing as she stared up at the trembling Buddy making her stop her nervous rocking. "Buddy?"

"You know I never imagined it happening like this… I always thought that this would be easy. It should be easy… we've both wanted this since before Incredible ruined my life! Why are we both such nervous wrecks about this? I mean I know you and I can almost always guess your reaction to everything I do, but now…" He stopped in mid sentence as she smiled back at him lovingly and took him by the hand pulling him closer as she stood from her chair.

"Because love is never predictable, that's what makes it so scary." She knew exactly what he was trying to say, he was afraid. She was now barely an inch off of him and she took in a deep breath followed by Buddy. His blazing blue eyes caught hers and she leaned in just a tiny bit more afraid to close the gap between them completely. They both stood there eyeing each other's lips wondering who would cave first and make the move.

Lex was surprised when their lips met realizing that it was her who advanced first making Buddy let out a moan of surprise before pulling away.

"Now see that I didn't expect, thought I was going to have to make the first move _again_." He laughed nervously before pulling her into another kiss. When he released her he looked shyly down at her as she caught her breath. She looked up at him curiously making him blush.

He slowly released her and sat on his bed motioning for her to join him. Her heart skipped a beat and she stopped breathing for a moment. Buddy instantly regretted his action wanting to smack himself hoping that she didn't think he was inviting her to sleep with him.

"Please…" He begged breaking the deathly silence as Lex stared back at him completely frozen. "… I just… want to hold you…" He held his hand out to her and she recomposed herself beginning to breathe heavily as she slowly made her way to the bed.

Lex took his hand her blood rushing so fast it was making her ears ring. He very slowly and gently pulled her beside him and wrapped his arms around her letting her rest her head on his chest just beneath his chin. He was practically shaking with fear and began taking long slow breaths to calm himself down. Lex began breathing in rhythm with him until both their hearts finally began beating normally again.

Neither of them knew how much time had passed and both were afraid to look at the clock yet alone move from the position that they we entwined in. They were so extremely terrified. They didn't want to move, too afraid of ruining the moment not wanting it to end. They knew they should be sleeping but they were too lost in each other's embrace to care.

Not after too long they both finally closed their eyes and fell asleep, they weren't asleep for too long until the intercom woke them up. "Sir you're needed in the main lab by Mr. Avian." It boomed just above the nightstand beside Syndrome. They both stirred and Syndrome groaned and stretched. Lex slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him as he smiled down at her.

He hit a button on the edge of his nightstand. "Alright be there as soon as I can." He yawned and Lex sat up stretching beside him. "That's twice now they've interrupted us…" He grumbled making Lex smile. Looking at the clock it was six in the morning.

Syndrome stood and stretched some more. Lex let her legs hang off the edge of the bed and stared at the floor in a daze still trying to decide if last night really happened. She was snapped back into reality when he tilted her head up making their eyes meet. She took in a deep breath and admired his face without his mask on running her thumb over his freckles. He closed his eyes and leaned into her hand.

"Last night…" She began but was cut short when he pulled her into a kiss.

"Last night was the most terrifyingly amazing nights I've ever shared with anyone." He said staring directly into her eyes. "Unfortunately I have to go. You should go back to bed." He lifted her in his arms and laid her out on his bed and pulled the sheet over her.

"In here?" She asked confused trying to get out of bed but he stopped her.

"I don't see why not." He smiled smugly. "Now go back to sleep." He stroked her hair and kissed her on the forehead before disappearing into the bathroom. Lex laid there staring at the ceiling replaying the night before in her head.

After a few minutes Syndrome emerged from the bathroom with his suit on and his hair up in its usual style. As he reached into a drawer on his nightstand he looked over at Lex.

"You should really get some sleep. You barely slept the past few days." He said putting his eye mask on. Lex huffed at him.

"I'll try…" She sighed and he raised his masked eyebrow at her. "What about you? You didn't sleep at all last night either?"

"That's different I've been getting a lot more sleep than you." He explained putting his gauntlets and gloves on. Lex glared at him and he leaned in and kissed her before turning quickly on his heels. Just before he closed the door behind him he peaked back at her. "Please get some sleep."

Once the doors closed she turned over on her side and stared at the shelf of Supers collectibles until she couldn't take it anymore. "Oh who am I kidding I can't go back to sleep now." She sat up in bed and threw the sheet off of her. She made the bed before leaving and headed back to her room to change. As much as she knew she probably needed the sleep she needed to get caught up on everything.

She grabbed herself something quick to eat and made a new pot of coffee taking a large thermos of it with her to the filing room where she had Mirage meet her. The day seemed to drag on as Lex struggled to stay awake. Luckily Mirage was catching on fast and she didn't have to put the extra effort into overlooking everything she did and focused on putting together the final blue prints for the Omni Droid and the individual steps that needed to be done and by who.

As she finished putting the whole thing together over an hour later she struggled to keep her eyes open and could feel Mirage eyeing her oddly from across the room. She did her best to ignore her as she saved all the files on three different hard drives along with sending it to hers and Syndrome's personal computers. Drinking the last of her coffee she rested her head in the palm of her hand.

"Are you ok?" Mirage looked at her almost intrigued.

"I'm fine, just a little tired." Lex yawned eyeing her with only one open eye. She stared at the door and it opened and Syndrome stepped in. No not Syndrome, Buddy. Lex shook her head and forced her other eye open. But there he stood in a black pair of pants and a nice button down shirt. His hair was shorter and up in spikes with his usual smirk on his face. "Buddy?" Lex asked aloud staring at him in shock. Before she knew it he had vanished into thin air.

"Who's Buddy?" Mirage asked smiling an evil smile as she crossed her legs and leaned towards Lex in curiosity. Lex stared at her for a moment before she realized what just happened. She had used her powers on her. She was so sleep deprived that Mirage's power worked on her. Her confusion quickly faded into anger and she stood from her chair and grabbing Mirage and throwing her to the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you? First yesterday with the outside food and today with your powers! Do you _want_ me to kill you?" Lex stood over her as she curled up into the fetal position in fear. Lex quickly pulled a pen out of her pocket and pressed a button on its side making as small blade pop out of the end of it.

"I'm sorry!" She screamed covering her head with her arms. Lex took a step towards her with the knife raised when a gloved hand wrapped around her wrist stopping her from going any further.

"Alexandria?" Came Syndrome's amused voice from behind her and she slowly turned around to face him as he took the pen blade from her.

"Buddy?" She smiled sarcastically back at him.

"What're you doing?" He asked looking at the terrified Mirage staring up at them from the floor.

"She used her powers on me!" Kali explained glaring at Mirage.

" _She's_ a super?" He chuckled his boyish laugh making Mirage turn red with embarrassment. "What are her powers?" He asked trying to contain himself. Lex explained her powers to him and he began laughing again.

"That's it? No wonder I've never heard of her… You really need to stop trying to kill your assistant." He then turned to Mirage who had sat back in her chair and was recomposing herself. "And you need to stop breaking her rules. Remember you don't get fired here you get _killed_." He explained coldly and turned back to Lex as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"I was just curious…" Mirage said with the innocence of a child.

"Well here curiosity really does kill the cat… you're lucky I intervened, next time you won't be so lucky." Syndrome threatened entwining his gloved fingers with Lex's making her tense up. The two could feel Mirage staring at them in awe and fear as they left the room making Syndrome laugh once the doors closed behind them.

"She's probably even more terrified of you now." He laughed as she shied behind him as a group of goons walked past them with looks of shock and awe on their face. "Come here you." He pulled her close and kissed her gently on the lips. There was a loud thud behind them and Syndrome laughed when one of the goons smacked into a wall from gawking at them.

They ate lunch together and the whole room was staring at them whispering to each other. Syndrome was gloating at it the entire time. The rest of the week Mirage stayed quiet and did her work. Lex and Syndrome spent more and more time together she even helped him build the artificial intelligence for the Omni Droid.

At night Lex would stay in his room with him and they would just talk and fall asleep in each other's arms. It was finally the day of Buddy's birthday and she was sure that he didn't suspect anything yet alone know what day it was. Everything had worked out nicely and everything was ahead of schedule. She turned off his alarm while he slept and they both slept in that morning.

Buddy awoke and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand, it read ten AM. He turned to look at Lex as she still slept peacefully beside him. He shook her lightly and she stirred.

"Lex wake up." He whispered and she batted at him blindly.

"No… we stay in bed…" She mumbled into her pillow then said something he couldn't understand.

"What? Lex it's ten o'clock! Get up!" He shook her again and she slowly opened her eyes.

"Today is your birthday Buddy. Stay in bed with me." She smiled as she stretched and wrapped her arms around him. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I don't think so… you turned my alarm off didn't you? You planned this…" He glared at her and she pulled him into a kiss. He tried to resist at first then gave in and she ended up on top of him. Lex knew she'd have to persuade him from wanting to get out of bed and this was the only thing she could think of.

"But when was the last time you had a day off?" She asked knowing she'd win this argument. He raised his finger to say something then lowered it.

"Our prom…" He looked away from her and she put her hands on either side of his face and looked into his eyes. "…so five years ago."

"Exactly…" She kissed the freckles on his cheeks. "Now… I've made sure no one will bother us today. So we can do _anything_ you want." She smiled.

"Anything?" He smiled to himself tucking a stray hair behind her ear. He rolled so he was on top of her and rested his head on her chest. "Let's sleep in." He closed his eyes and pretended to snore.

"Really? Of _all_ the things we could do you want to sleep in?" She teased and his fake snoring stopped and he opened one eye at her.

"How about…" He opened his other eye and propped his head with his hand. "We have some breakfast and go from there." He suggested.

"Alright, what do you want? I'll have Travis bring it to us." She sat up and grabbed her minicomputer off the nightstand.

"Where's the fun in that? Let's make it ourselves." He smiled getting out of bed. After he was dressed in his super suit and did his hair Lex was dressed in her usual black and white. Lex handed him his eye mask frowning as he put it on.

"Do you have to wear your suit today?" Lex asked eyeing him up and down.

"What else am I going to wear?" He smirked and took her by the hand leading her out into the large corridor. They walked across the hall and rode a pod to the kitchen. When they got there Syndrome relieved the cooks and locked the door.

The kitchen was huge. The cabinets above the black marble counter tops were so tall you'd have to stand on the counter to reach the top shelf. Three large ovens and stove tops lined the back wall. There was one large walk-in fridge and freezer and two rather large walk in pantries that were stocked full. Dishes filled the top cabinets and all the food preparing utensils, measuring cups, mixers and so forth were in the cabinets and drawers below. In the middle of the kitchen was a large island with a digital cook book installed into it.

"How about some pancakes?" Lex asked pulling a bowl down from the cabinet and grabbing a whisk out of the drawer.

"How many times have you used this kitchen?" He asked noticing that she already knew where everything was.

"Quite a few times." She laughed. "I like to make my own sushi and lots of other things." He smiled at her.

"Maybe you could make us dinner tonight then." Buddy suggested and held her against the counter placing a kiss on her forehead. Her head rested on his chest and she looked back up at him to see that he had removed his mask and she kissed his freckles below his eyes.

After breakfast Buddy put his mask back on and Lex led him down the long corridor by the hand stopping in front of a large door.

"This door is new… What's in there?" He asked as she opened the doors leading him in. He looked inside as the lights came on to see a high-ceilinged overly padded room. In the corner sat two of his zero point energy gloves. "Did you make another one?" He turned to her with a boyish grin on his face making her blush.

"Yeah that way it'd be funner to test them out on each other in here. I know I said you're not allowed to work today but I don't really count this. I figured…" Lex was cut short when buddy pulled her close and kissed her fiercely on the lips catching her off guard. When he released her she had to catch her balance by grabbing onto the wall.

"I'm keeping you forever." He whispered into her ear sending a chill down her back. Then before she could recompose herself he had locked the door and ran across the room to grab a glove. Lex shook herself and tackled him down landing on top of him. She reached beside him and slipped on the other glove as he did the same.

"Buddy Pine were you trying to cheat?" She asked holding his gloved hand so he couldn't zap her.

"Why of course not." He smiled deviously and pushed her off of him and quickly got to his feet but before he could zap her he was trapped in a blue light only able to move his eyes. She sat on the floor pointing the glove at him smiling. She lifted him up and dropped him several feet from the floor and he landed with a bounce as she scrambled to her feet.

"So that's how it's going to be." He laughed zapping blue light at her missing a few times before trapping her in it and throwing her to the wall making her bounce off it. She rolled to her feet and ran across the room dodging his attacks. He got her again and threw her high into the air and released her. Before she hit the ground he got her again and set her down gently. Their little tango of blue light and tossing each other around the room lasted a few hours ending when they both realized how much time had passed.

"So what else do you have planned for me oh brilliant one?" He smiled at her as he wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"How about late lunch on the beach?" She suggested handing him her glove so he could have one on each hand.

"Or." He smiled devilishly. "We could have an early dinner and call it an _early_ night."

"Or that." Lex looked partially afraid making Buddy laugh.

Lex made them some sushi and packed it in a small cooler. Once she had their dinner packed and ready to take to the beach with them Buddy surprised her and flew them to the beach with his rocket boots.

"You better not drop me." She teased on their way there and he pretended to lose power on his boots making her hold tighter onto him. When they found a good spot Buddy surprised Lex and stripped out of his super suit to reveal he was wearing swim trunks and to his surprise Lex had her swimsuit on as well. They couldn't have been happier. Dinner was delicious and they sat talking for awhile digging holes in the sand with their feet.

When Lex was distracted burying her feet in the wet sand Buddy slipped one of his zero point energy gloves on and used it to pick up a small ball of water and dropped it above her head. She turned around and glared at him with a look of vengeance. She sprung to her feet and tackled him to the ground.

"Hey that's not fair!" She laughed and he let her slide the glove off of his hand. She threw it and it landed on the pile of their clothes on top of their blanket they were sitting on for dinner. Lex was on top of him staring down into his eyes. He pulled her into a kiss.

"Mmm can I have you for dessert?" He teased making Lex roll her eyes.

"You're so cheesy." She laughed tapping the tip of his nose. "But I still love you for it anyways…" Her eyes went wide realizing what she had just said.

"You what?" He stared back at her in disbelief. He knew what she said and he knew she meant it and knew she had wanted to say it all these years, but he never imagined she'd actually say it. She was about to roll off of him when he wrapped his arms around her and held her there on top of him.

"I… I… I love you." She confessed and closed her eyes tightly in fear of his reaction. Then she felt his hands on either side of her face and he pulled her into a light kiss and placed his lips at her ear.

"I love you too… more than you'll ever know." He whispered and held her to his chest smiling.


	4. Paradise Lost

Buddy pulled Lex into a long kiss. His hands tangled into her hair not wanting to let go. After being locked together for a moment he released her and they both gasped for air. They looked at each other and laughed. Buddy never wanted this day to end realizing that it was still rather early in the night he rolled Lex onto her back and pinned her down in the sand. She looked up at him with wide eyes.

"How about we take this indoors?" He asked playfully as the sun disappeared beyond the horizon. Lex's heart skipped a beat knowing what he was hinting at, all she could do was silently nod and he placed a kiss on her forehead as he rolled off of her. He strapped his rocked boots on and gathered the rest of their things on the blanket tying it up like a knapsack and threw it over his shoulder. Lex sat in the sand watching him now knowing he wasn't joking.

He smiled down at her knowing she was as scared as he was and held his free hand out to her and pulled her to her feet and pulled her close. She stood on the tops of his boots and wrapped her arms around him nuzzling her face into his chest. He took off with his boots and flew them to the balcony of his room. When they landed he tossed the bundle of their things inside the door and before Lex could step inside he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

"Hey put me down!" She protested.

"We're all dirty from the beach, we need a _shower_." He laughed and Lex went silent as she processed the 'we' part. Her heart was suddenly racing unsure of what to do as he carried her into his large bathroom. Buddy was just as nervous as she was but he wasn't going to back out, the probability of having a free day like this again was extremely low. He knew Lex went out of her way and over worked herself to make sure everything was ahead of schedule so they could have today, and he planned on making it worth every bit of trouble she went through for him through all these years.

He set her down on her feet and she stood frozen in place as if afraid to move. Smiling at her he fought back his nervous laughter as not to give himself away. She watched him closely as he stepped into the large circular shower. He lifted the little water proof box inside the door to the shower and turned the water on with the small touch pad and set the water temperature.

When the water switched on Lex jumped at the sound making Buddy giggle nervously then he suddenly straighten up making her heart skip a beat. Rushing over to her he grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her to the cool tile wall sending a wave of heat through her. Her hair was a mess around her face and he tucked a loose strand behind her ear and slowly ran his fingers down the side of her neck. His finger slipped under the shoulder strap of her swimsuit and pulled it down hesitantly.

They were both breathing deeply as the heat swelled inside of them. He slowly trailed his hand across her chest and lowered her other strap. Just before he started to pull her swimsuit down further she tucked her fingers into the waist line of his swim shorts and pulled him close kissing him fiercely sending more waves of desire and heat through him. When she released him they both fought to catch their breath and he realized that she had removed his shorts and wiggled out of her swimsuit.

There they finally were standing only a few inches off of each other completely exposed to one another. They were both afraid to unlock eyes. Buddy was the first to break eye contact and took in Lex's beautiful naked form standing before him.

"Wow." Was the only word out of his mouth making her blush as she eyed him nervously. They both stood there eyeing each other until Buddy broke the awkwardness. "Care to join me in the shower?" He asked holding his hand out to her. She hesitantly took it and led her into the shower and closed the glass door behind him.

Lex quickly stepped into the streaming water. She had her back to Buddy and she felt him brush up against her before his hands rested on her shoulders making a shiver run up her spine. Turning around to face him his wet hair clung to his face and they both smiled shyly at one another.

They both knew what they wanted but they were both scared and unsure how to go about it so they stood there holding each other for a few moments. For once Lex was the one to speak first.

"And I thought kissing you was scary." She laughed making him laugh with her.

"Why must we be so scared even though we both know that we belong together?" He asked mostly talking to himself. Lex sighed in response and rested her head on his chest.

He put his hand under her chin and tilted her head up and their lips met. In that instant it was like both their barriers that they were afraid to go past suddenly crumbled. Before they both knew what their bodies had in mind Lex had her legs wrapped around Buddy's waist and he held her up with her back against the tile of the shower wall. He slowly entered her and they both let out a small cry of triumph once he was in both their bodies shuttering in pleasure together.

There was no way to describe that night once they got started in the shower. It was like everything they had been holding back all those years broke free and attacked. After the shower they did it again on the bathroom counter, then again in his bed and again. Then finally their bodies gave out and they fell asleep naked and entwined together. After that night they knew that nothing would ever be the same again.

It was so hard for them to work the next day with how sore they had made each other and everyone noticed the difference in their moods. Even the dumbest of the goons noticed and it was quite frankly starting to scare some of them to see Syndrome in such a good mood. Even when something got blown up no one was blamed and no one was killed in anger.

Days, Weeks, Months went by and Syndrome and Lex were almost always seen together and spent every second of free time they had in their busy schedules together enjoying themselves. They very rarely fought and when they did it was usually over small things like whose room they were going to sleep in that night or what time to schedule a meeting.

Almost two years had passed and everything was working out according to plan. The first Omni-Droid killed two supers before it was destroyed and the second version took down three. They had just put the finishing touches on the third Omni-Droid and Mirage had given Lex the new list of supers she had located. She was on her way to meet Syndrome in his lab to discuss which supers he wanted to test it on next. Looking at all the names it really bothered her as she remembered how much she used to idolize some of the names before her.

"Here's the list of all the Supers that Mirage has located so far." She handed him the folder and he smiled up at her and placed a kiss on her hand before opening the folder. He quickly skimmed the page and took out a pen and began writing numbers next to the names. "Um Can I ask you something?"

"Anything." He said with a smile as he continued to number the names to his liking.

"Just how many Supers do you plan on killing? I mean you're just after Incredible why waste time with all the others?" She asked and he stopped what he was doing and turned to her.

"Because if there isn't any Super's left then he'll be all alone and the only person left will be _me_. I will defeat him and all the other Supers to prove once and for all that you don't need to have _powers_ to be Super." He explained seriously becoming angry. Lex slumped into her chair wishing she never asked. Syndrome's turned to her and his face went soft and he pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry Lex. You know I get angry when people question my plan." He kissed her on the forehead. "I love you."

"I love you, but the names on this list are all names of people we idolized as kids. This is"

"Lex what are you saying?" He interrupted and took a step back from her. "You can't tell me it bothers you that we're killing off Supers. You killed three henchmen yesterday to test the accuracy of the Omni-Droids targeting system and you almost killed Mirage twice in one day when she first started here, and you have a problem killing Supers?"

"It's different" She looked away from him.

"No it's not. This was _your_ idea in the first place. _You_ are the one that put the villain idea in my head and"

"Excuse me!" She cut him off. "This whole entire thing is _my_ fault! I don't think so! This was your choice, you could have walked away from Incredible and done something better with your life! We could have been together back then, we could have done _a lot_ of things, but no you just couldn't let it go and you let it consume your entire life including mine!" Lex was furious and she knew Syndrome was too, she could see it in his eyes.

"Get out of my lab." He said firmly and Lex could tell he was holding back his anger and she was holding back her tears. She made her way to the door and let the airlock shut behind her before bursting into a run towards her room.

Buddy let himself fall into his chair and screamed out punching his fist into the table. He was sure he felt something in his Zero Point Energy glove break from the impact, but he didn't care. He knew deep down that she was right but there was no way he'd accept it. A silent tear streamed down his face and he wiped it away and continued to number the list of Supers names as if nothing happened.

Lex was screaming and crying into a pillow in her room. She wanted to die. How could she say those things to him when everything was going just fine? Why did she have to go and ruin it? She wanted to disconnect the camera's and the sound recorders in her room but she just couldn't get a hold of herself long enough to do it. There was no telling how long she was crying but she eventually fell asleep. She woke up to Travis shaking her.

"Lex? Wake up." He said softly and she opened her sore eyes.

"Time?" She asked not wanting to focus her eyes just yet.

"It's four in the morning. Sorry for barging in your door was unlocked and I was worried about you. I think everyone saw what happened" His voice trailed off.

"It's ok you can talk about it. I'm fine. I'm pretty sure I'm all cried out." She sat up in bed and threw her tear stained pillow to the floor. "Just give me a moment." Travis nodded and sat on the couch as she made her way to the bathroom.

Looking at herself in the mirror her eyes were all red and puffy from crying and they felt all dried out. She washed her face and did her hair then went into her closet and changed into her usual outfit. Joining Travis on the couch he handed Lex her glasses and she put them on.

"Do I still look like I was up crying all night?" She smiled a weak smile.

"Yes" He said hesitantly.

"Oh well I tried." She shrugged.

"Are you sure you're going to be ok? I mean me and half the other guys are mad at him. I can't believe he just shut you out like that." Travis said in shock. "Everyone thought you two would be together forever" Lex took in a deep breath to keep herself from crying. "I'm sorry I didn't mean"

"It's ok. I'll be fine." She reassured him. "Wait, how did everyone know about what happened? I thought he restricted the lab feeds?"

"I kind of bypassed a few things so we could still hear the audio." He explained nervously and Lex smiled weakly. "So what are you going to do?" He asked.

"I don't know I'm going to see how he's handled it first." She replied.

"Oh well after you left the lab from what I can tell he broke both his Zero Point Gloves" He trailed off.

"What?" She asked as she grabbed her computer off her night stand and opened it up going to the security cameras in Syndrome's Lab. Once entering her password the camera's showed him sitting there taking his gloves apart most of the circuitry was broken along with one of the power cells. She sighed loudly and slammed her computer shut. "What the hell was I thinking exploding on him like that? I ruined everything!" She yelled sliding her fingers between her eyes and her glasses resting her face in her hands.

"Well he did try and blame you for everything." He pointed out.

"I know I really don't want to talk about it. He hasn't gone to sleep yet has he?" She asked.

"No He's been trying to fix his gloves for awhile nowYou should go talk to him" He suggested as he made his way to the door.

"I'm going to try" She said knowing that he might be difficult and Travis nodded as before leaving.

"I'll see you later, I'm going to get some sleep." And he disappeared out the door. Lex slumped into the couch and opened the laptop again to see that Syndrome had left his lab. He was now on his way to the break room. Lex took this chance and as quickly as she could made her way to his lab. She was thankful that he hadn't revoked her access to it.

Keeping her laptop open beside her she went to work on his gloves. She was almost done when he started to head back to the lab. With how fast she fixed them she wondered why it took him so long to make such little progress on them. He must have been extremely distracted, and she blamed herself. As much as she was beginning to hate his plan she didn't want him to get off task because of her. He was at the first airlock door and she was tempted to leave but decided to stay. She shut her laptop and continued to work on his gloves.

Syndrome couldn't focus on anything after he had kicked Lex out of his lab and worse he broke his Zero Point Gloves and couldn't concentrate long enough to get anything done on them. He thought taking a break and getting something to eat would help but he was still as distracted as ever. Lex's words played over and over again in his head. He almost started to believe that he had gone too far with killing as many Supers as he had in mind, almost.

He made his way back to his lab and was surprised to see Lex sitting there working on his gloves almost done putting them back together. He was unsure of what to do. He was definitely still mad at her for questioning his plan and as much as he knew that it was his choice to become the villain he still blamed her for putting the idea in his head in the first place. She looked up at him and his heart sank when he saw her face.

Her eyes were red and swollen, she had to of been crying all night to look that bad. He couldn't understand why she'd be so upset, she was the one that exploded on him right?

"Hey, I don't know how you broke these but I fixed them." She smiled weakly up at him as she held them out to him. He quickly snatched them away from her.

"I was almost done fixing them" He glared back at her and she stared back at him just the same.

"Don't think that I don't pay attention, you've been trying to fix them for the last three hours and haven't made any progress. If I'm that distracting I'll stay out of your way as long as you need me to." She replied calmly making him feel bad for snapping at her, but he wasn't going to let her win, he was still mad at her.

"Maybe you should just go away for awhile, why don't you take a vacation for once?" He suggested not wanting to completely burn his bridges he had with her. Despite the fact he was furious with her he still loved her. But she was right she was suddenly a huge distraction now that they were angry with each other. He thought his suggestion was a good idea, she had never spent much time away from her work, but he instantly regretted his words when her face twisted into anger.

"Yes why don't I just go on vacation when we're still not even halfway through your plan yet? Hmm who should I go with? I can't go with any friends, I don't have any because of _you_! Or I know I could go and visit my parents, oh wait never mind I can't do that because they're dead! And in case you don't remember _you_ killed them!" Lex screamed and quickly grabbed her laptop and headed for the door. Syndrome stood there speechless. He definitely wasn't expecting anything like that from her. She was almost at the airlock door and he didn't know why but he ran after her and grabbed her by the wrist stopping her.

"Where are you going?" He demanded.

"I'm not going on any fucking vacation! There is too much that still needs to be done here. I'll stay out of your way, but whether you want my help or not I'm still staying here and doing my job! Now let me go!" She yanked her wrist free and left out the airlock.

Syndrome just stood there and stared at the door after it shut. He couldn't believe she had brought up her parents. She hadn't mentioned it in so long and it made him furious that she would throw it in his face like that. Even if she did decide to leave he could get everything done without her. He didn't _need_ her help, he could get everything done on his own. Pulling out a schematic for a new weapon he was designing he tried to think of a time when he didn't need her help, but as the next few hours went by he could barely think of any.

Lex made her way to her room and goons jumped out of her way in fear when they saw the look on her face. When she got there Travis was waiting for her.

"Are you going to be ok?" He asked with concern.

"Yes, I'm fine" She said trying not to yell at him in her frustration. "Can you please get a jet ready for me. I have _a lot_ of work to do. Since he doesn't want me around I'll just work on his second base. With the way he's been acting we might actually need it"


	5. Unneeded Pain & Revenge

Lex had found a remote little island in the North Pacific Ocean to start the backup base on and spent most of her time in her room drawing up floor plans and room designs. She did her best to not run into Syndrome. A few months had passed and they hadn't talked since she yelled at him in his lab. She was constantly working trying not to think about him and the whole situation. Sometimes she'd check on him through the camera feeds and after the first month had gone by he started having Mirage help him with things.

It was hard for her to not constantly monitor them when they want worked together. Luckily she noticed that Syndrome would easily get annoyed with her and send her away. She could help when she was instructed on what to do, otherwise she could only help with the simple things like keeping his blue prints in order and order the things he needed. But Lex couldn't help but be jealous of the fact that he was talking to Mirage and not her. She was still angry with him but that would never change the way she felt for him. There was a knock on her door.

"Come in." She said and Travis entered in his gray sweat pants and matching tank top.

"Hey I was just about to head to my room for the night and thought I'd keep you company for a bit." He closed the door behind him and eyed her oddly. "Don't you ever sleep?"

"Sometimes." She replied sitting in her bed with her back against the head board. Pulling her laptop into her lap Travis sat on the couch.

"I've been meaning to ask you about something" He looked to her afraid.

"Yes?" She looked to him wondering what would make him so nervous.

"That last day you and Syndrome were in the lab together. You said he killed your parents" He was afraid to continue.

"Yesit was after our graduation senior year in high school he had finally finished an invention of his and was excited to show it to me. It was supposed to be a remote control bomb. I thought my parents were still stuck in traffic coming home from our graduation. He flew us up out of the backyard with his rocket boots and we made it fly around before making it go off. It was only supposed to be a small blast big enough to blow up a small dog house, but something went wrong and it leveled our backyard and" She took a deep breath. "Turns out my parents went into the backyard looking for us just as it went off and it got them too" She explained as a tear streamed down her face.

"I'm sorry" He said and looked sadly to her.

"No it's ok" She wiped the tear away. "I know it was an accident, but he still blames himself, I miss those days when he was still scheming, before he became Syndrome."

"I wish he'd just talk to you He's been extremely irritable lately... Well I should go to bed. You should too." He suggested and made his way out the door. Lex sighed sadly as the door clicked shut. She stared at her computer screen blankly for a few moments before she let her tears stream down her face and began sobbing into her pillow.

Syndrome made his way to his room for the night. Usually he'd rush past Lex's room not wanting to linger there long enough to run into her, but this time he slowed down and rested his hand on the door handle for a moment but quickly tore himself away from it before a group of goons came around the corner. Once he was in his room he took his rocket boots off and slowly worked his way out of his suit. He took off his gauntlets and gloves putting them on his nightstand.

The past few months had been hell on him, work was getting done but he was having a hard time focusing. There were even a few nights he caught himself checking the camera feeds to _check_ on Lex. She seemed to be spending a lot more time with Travis and it was actually starting to bother him. As much as he didn't want to admit it he was a little jealous.

He wished she hadn't disconnected the feeds in her room. It seemed like whenever he was having a weak moment and wanted to see her she was always in her room. He hated that he missed her but he was still mad at her and he knew she was still mad at him. Neither of them had even made an attempt to talk to each other. They somehow both knew that confronting each other would put everything off track in his plans and neither of them wanted that to happen.

There was still so much to do, but he hoped that once Incredible took his last breath she'd still be there waiting for him. He couldn't even fathom being with someone else and doubted she could either. It was almost like they were made for each other. Laying in bed he thought about all the things she said that day in the lab again and pondered how things _could_ have been different if he had moved on from the Incredible incident.

Just before he had fallen asleep he had imagined them being together from when they were younger and they had gotten engaged after high school. After graduating from college he was already a successful inventor with Lex as his assistant and they were planning their wedding.

His plans continued to work out nicely and Lex had all of her plans for the second base done and its construction had already begun. It had been a year since they had fought in the lab and they still almost never saw each other. The few times that they would see each other were somewhat awkward and they'd both be rather distant from everyone the rest of the day.

Since construction of the secondary base was underway and Lex no longer needed to be locked up in her room drawing out floor plans and making room designs. She started to go to the gym and spend time in the spare lab working on her own projects she had long forgotten or improving and finishing Syndrome's inventions to keep herself busy. She never had much involvement with his Omni-Droid plan now that he had Mirage and Avian helping him full time, but she was thankful for it knowing it made things easier on the both of them that way.

It was late and Lex couldn't sleep so she decided to go to the gym and ran into Travis on the way who decided to join her since he had no current assignments for the next day.

Syndrome was walking the halls to clear his mind from getting frustrated with his current Omni-Droid upgrade. He was trying to make a more powerful, yet smaller power source for it but it just kept blowing up in his face and electrocuting him. He heard laughter coming from the gym around the corner and he stopped in his tracks when he realized it was Lex he heard laughing.

Sneaking around the corner and quietly as he could he looked into the gym to see Lex sitting on the floor behind a treadmill and Travis offering her a hand up.

"I knew you couldn't make it past fifth-teen." He laughed as he helped her to her feet.

"Hey I did six-teen for like two seconds." She replied rubbing her sore tailbone.

"That doesn't really count." He laughed and she rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh well, I think I'm spent. I think I can fall asleep now." She said and headed towards the door and Travis followed. Syndrome took a step back around the corner and waited for them to get further ahead of him until he began to follow them as quietly as he could.

"Agreed it's way past my normal bed time." Travis said yawning and stretching. They talked about the construction of the second base as they slowly made their way to Lex's room. They were finally at her door when she mentioned him.

"I really want to get the secondary base done before he finishes his plan, but I hope we don't need it" She looked sad for a moment.

"Me too, but you both really just need to"

"I know! I get it! But that's not going to happen any time soon!" She became angry and a tear streamed down her face. Travis embraced her in a hug and she sobbed into his chest. Syndrome suddenly became very angry seeing him hug her like that. Convincing himself that Travis was just a good friend trying to comfort her made him calm down a bit, but then he led her into her room and closed the door behind him.

He didn't know how long he was there but Travis still hadn't emerged from her room. Syndrome was becoming restless and angry. It had maybe been over an hour or so and still nothing so he stormed off to his room to get a few hours of sleep. Luckily he was already exhausted so falling asleep didn't take too long.

When his alarm went off he quickly got dressed and headed straight towards Lex's room. It had been about seven hours since he saw them go into her room together and just as he turned the corner he saw Travis leaving Lex's room closing her door as quietly as he could. All he saw after that was red, there was nothing that could have calmed him down. He was tempted to burst into Lex's room and demand an explanation but he was too enraged and instead of walking to his room he flew with his rocket boots.

Once he was in his room he screamed in rage and took off his gloves and gauntlets and punched the large mirror on his wall with his bare hands making it shatter to the floor. A few shards of mirror stuck in his knuckles making them bleed and he just continued to punch the metal wall behind the mirror until most of his fingers and knuckles had broken or been cut open and he could no longer feel the pain. There were blood smears all over the wall.

"Why! What did I do wrong?" He screamed and leaned against the wall sliding to the floor. He held his head in his bloody hands and cried silent tears. How could she cheat on him? They may not have been together at the moment but he knew that they would have been again eventually. And why with Travis? He was nothing like him. Sitting there staring at the wall filled with hurt and confusion he picked the pieces of glass out of his hands that didn't require tweezers to remove.

He didn't scream or cry out as he stitched his own hands up, he was still too infuriated to feel the pain. After tightly wrapping his hands he put his gloves back on and left his room a bloody mess of mirror shards. If she was going to move on, then so was he.

Lex slowly rolled out of bed and rubbed her eyes. The night before definitely wasn't a fun one. Travis had broken her barrier she had put up to keep herself from getting upset about Buddy and she cried and they talked about it making her feel a little better to finally say the things she had bottled up inside about the whole situation. She couldn't remember when but she fell asleep while he was talking to her and by the looks of her couch so did he.

Making her way to the bathroom the light stung her eyes. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying but at least they weren't all puffy and swollen. She took a nice warm shower to wake herself up. Once she was dressed she sat on the couch with her laptop and had a video call with the lady in charge of the construction of the secondary base and she was showing her the progress they were making and their estimated times for getting each phase of it done.

After that was done her stomach rumbled at her so she made her way to the kitchen. There were a few goons in there watching as the cooks made their lunch for them and they all greeted Lex as she came in. She grabbed a mixing bowl and pulled up the ingredients for scones and began making them. Once they were finished a few of the goons begged her if they could have one and she shared with them since she purposely had made a double batch.

She sat at a table with her computer as she ordered more supplies for the secondary base and ate her scones. The cooks thanked her for sharing with everyone and made her a big glass of chocolate milk. When she was finished she left the extra scones on the table by the door for passersby to eat. She stayed in the kitchen watching the cooks make the lunch requests as she worked on her computer. Out in the hall there was suddenly a lot of whispering and the next goon that walked by the door stopped dead in his tracks when he set eyes on her and a look of terror crossed his face as he quickly took off without a word.

After a few moments even the cooks started to act strangely and it started to bother her. What was going on? She pulled her ear piece out of her shirt pocket and put it on and called Travis.

"Travis what the heck is going on? Everyone is acting very weird" She said into the mic and the cooks and other goons in the room suddenly fled closing the doors behind them. This really worried her, and Travis came almost running into the kitchen and locked the airlock door behind him.

"Sorry I tried to get here as fast as I could" He said between huffs.

"Ok what in the _hell_ is going on?" She demanded becoming annoyed and she saw the worried horrified look on his face. "Oh god what happened? Is Syndrome ok?" She started to panic thinking the worst like he blew himself up or the Omni-Droid attacked him.

"I don't even know how to put it into words Just go to the camera feeds in the filing room" He said quickly and backed away from her. She stared back at him a bit afraid and slowly clicked her way to it. When the screen pulled up what she saw made her completely shut down for a few seconds.

What she saw happening on the screen Syndrome had Mirage pinned to the wall and they were she couldn't even think the words. When she could think again she kicked the table away from her sending it sliding a few feet before toppling over her computer hitting the floor landing perfectly and she could still see them on the screen. She ran up to it and kicked it hard breaking the screen.

Picking it up over her head she threw it across the room making it go through a glass cabinet door. It made a loud crashing sound as it smashed into the dishes inside. She's not quite sure when but, Travis at one point had left and locked the two airlock doors so no one could get in. Some watched through the small windows on the doors.

What was he doing? Did she do something to upset him? And Mirage she wanted to kill her. He barely even noticed her existence even though she was helping him most of the time he never paid much attention to her. What changed? She began punching through the glass and metal designs on each of the cabinet doors. Her hands were bleeding from the metal scraping her skin and pieces of glass were stuck in her knuckles.

She was so infuriated she didn't even notice the blood dripping off of her hands as she kicked the doors off of the largest cabinet and stepped inside. Grabbing a handful of porcelain plates she threw them to the ground and started to throw two across the room at a time kicking them and screaming out. She grabbed glass cups and smashed them into the wall with her bloody hands only making them worse. Once she had almost gone though the whole cabinet and there was only two large stacks of glass cups left and she screamed as loud as she could as she knocked them all over and collapsed to the floor of the cabinet. She was sure she had a few pieces of glass in her legs now but she didn't care.

She just sat there and cried uncontrollably and eventually passed out from blood loss. When she woke up her hands were bandaged up and she could feel a few on the back of her legs. She was in her room with an IV hooked up to her giving her blood. Looking up at the almost empty bag of blood she remembered how she had hurt herself in the first place. Throwing the covers off of she was glad to find herself in her own pajamas. Before she could sit up in bed a pair of hands stopped her.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Travis asked appearing beside her. She slumped back into bed and everything hit her again. Syndrome and Mirage, they had sex together in the filing room, on camera. It even seemed like he wanted Lex to see it. She began sobbing and shaking and Travis put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You really scared a lot of us in there it took _a lot_ of stitches to fix your hands" She looked at her hands and her fingers were all bandaged together making it look like she was wearing really thick white mittens.

After a few moments she calmed down and took a few deep breaths. "How long was I out?"

"About two hours." He answered as she sat up in bed.

"Did they already clean up the kitchen?" She asked wondering if her laptop memory could be salvaged.

"Yeah you can't even tell anything ever happened, but I made sure to save most of the pieces of your laptop. I brought a new one up here so you could maybe transfer and memory that survived." He explained and she hugged him minding her hands. They sat there going through the pieces left of her laptop and luckily were able to successfully put the old memory into the new one. It took longer than Lex had liked, but she couldn't do it herself and had to instruct Travis on how to do it since she couldn't use her hands. After he gave her some pain medicine he left her alone.

"Finally." She sighed as the door closed behind him. Lucky for her he left the laptop open on her nightstand. She got out of bed and she could feel the bandages on the back of her legs more. Luckily the cuts on her legs weren't nearly as bad as the ones on her hands and didn't need stitches. She lifted her leg while using the bed as balance and pulled the drawer of the nightstand out with her foot and let it drop to the floor.

She grabbed a pen with her toes and held onto it tightly while bringing the laptop with her to the couch. Her hands stung as she carried it to the couch trying her best to not drop it. Sitting on the couch she dropped the pen on the keyboard and picked it up with her mouth and shoved it into one of the outer layers of the bandages on her left hand and began navigating her computer with it.

After a few minutes she finally found what she was looking for, after checking the video feeds she found that Syndrome was in his room, alone. She slipped on a pair of slippers and ignored the pain she started to feel on the back of her legs and hit the button to unlock her door with her elbow then kicked it open and quickly made her way to his room.

Syndrome sat on his bed with his face in his hands. What was he thinking? Why did he attack Mirage like that, and why in the filing room where he was pretty sure everyone saw? He was angry, jealous, and heartbroken that's why. How could Lex just move on so quickly? He kicked a mirror shard across the room and took his gloves off to find that he really needed to change the bandages on his hands and began to unravel the bloody gauze into the sink.

As Lex made her way to his room everyone seemed to disappear as quickly as they could when they saw her. Standing in front of his door she eyed the large 'S' shaped handles and screamed out in frustration. With her teeth she began to pull the bandages off of one of her hands. She placed her freed fingers on the scanner and she heard it unlock and angrily wrapped her fingers around the handles of the door tightly and pulled it open ignoring the pain in her hand.

When she stepped into his room she was confused when she saw the blood stains on the wall and the shattered pieces of mirror on the floor. She quickly shook herself and pulled the door shut behind her so no one could get in.

"Where the hell are you?" She demanded and he stepped out of his bathroom with fresh bandages on his hands.

"Lex?" He asked confused and he noticed she had one hand bandaged up and the other was covered in bleeding stitches. "What happened? Are you ok?" He asked rushing to her.

"Get away from me!" She screamed taking a step back. What was wrong with him he had to of known she had seen what he did with Mirage, everyone else had. But why were his hands covered in gauze? Did he know about what she did in the kitchen?

"Lex you're bleeding!" He was frantic as much as he wanted to be mad at her he couldn't in that moment.

"So what! It's not like you care about me! I saw you with Mirage! _Everyone_ did! Why? What did I do wrong?" She screamed trying to hold back her tears.

"What are you talking about?" He was furious. "You're the one who moved on first! I saw you and Travis he spent _all_ night in your room with you, don't think I don't know what you two were doing in there! You have"

"No! No no, no, no, no, no don't even tell me" She came to the realization of what happened and she slumped to the floor leaning on his bed. "Yeah you were right he did spend the night in my room we were only _talking_! He was trying to comfort me because I was upset about _you_! _Nothing_ happened in there except for me crying and us talking about _you_!" She couldn't hold back her tears anymore and let them fall as she stared back at him awaiting a response.

Syndrome stood there completely speechless. He knew she wasn't lying and it hit him like a brick wall. He had betrayed Lex, and now there was nothing he could do or say to defend himself or make it right. Silent tears fell down his face and he punched the wall closest to him and screamed out as some of his stitches ripped out.

Lex sat on the floor glaring at him as she pulled the bandages off of her other hand. "Just so you know _this_ " She held up her hands. "Is because of you. I take it you did the same only not as badly as me when you _thought_ I had hurt you"

"Lex" He took a step towards her.

"No! Get away from me!" She stood and backed away from him. "You couldn't just simply ask me what was going on, no you just assumed that I slept with him so you got your _revenge_ on me. Are you happy now?" She asked coldly.

"Why would I be happy? I hurt you and now things are even worse than they were before!" He yelled in response. He was so mad at himself. Seeing the hurt look in Lex's eyes and tears streaming down her face definitely wasn't helping. He just wanted to hold her and forget about the last twenty-four hours. But he knew that wasn't going to happen.

"You're right, and just to make sure things don't get even worse you won't be seeing much of me!" She screamed quickly heading to the door. Buddy wasn't sure what to do so he ran after her and stood between her and the door. "Move!" She demanded, but he didn't budge. He couldn't just let her leave, there had to be _something_ he could do.

"I don't want you to leave, Lex please" He pleaded and as a desperate attempt to make her stay he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a kiss. She fought him and tried to pull away but he pulled her closer and she gave in and leaned into him. He was so afraid to let go but he knew he had to and she took a few steps back.

Lex wished she could just forget what he had done and take their kiss further, but there was no way she could do that. He hurt her more than she ever thought possible. Something white caught the corner of her eye, his zero point energy gloves were on the dresser a few steps behind her.

"Buddy, I can't do this, you hurt me and I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive you." She took another step towards the dresser.

"Lex I'm sorry, whatever it is you want me to do for you, I'll do it." He pleaded as he guarded the door afraid she'd try to leave again. "I just want things to go back to the way they were." She took another step back.

"You can leave me alone and only contact me when you _absolutely_ need my help. Otherwise I'm done helping you with your plan. I have my own projects to worry about." She said sternly and he looked at her with hurt in his eyes.

"I'll do my best to leave you alone if that's what you want" He stepped away from the door and Lex stopped honing in on his gloves. They locked eyes as she made her way to the door and he fought with himself to not stop her from leaving. He stood aside and watched her leave. As the doors closed locking themselves he flexed his hands causing his stitches to tear and bleed. He just stood there for the longest time staring at the door occasionally flexing his hands making his cuts reopen making them bleed even more.

It was hard for Lex to let go of the 'S' shaped handle after she closed the door and heard it lock itself. She slowly unwrapped each finger from the cool metal leaving a bloody hand print. Just as she turned to head back to her room her face met with Travis's chest. Knowing who it was she clutched onto him and began sobbing uncontrollably.


	6. Agonizing Infatuation

After Travis helped Lex pack a few bags and re-bandaged her hands they left on one of Syndrome's jets. Lex thought they were going to the secondary base to oversee the construction but when she woke up from her nap and looked out the window they were landing on a beach. She checked the computer to find that they were in Hawaii.

"Travis?" She asked as she poked her head into the pilot's cabin. "Why did you take us to Hawaii?"

"I don't care how much you threaten me you _need_ a vacation." Lex rolled her eyes and sat in the co-pilot seat looking rather annoyed.

Once they finished landing someone took their bags and Lex had decided since he was forcing her on vacation that she gets to choose the room. Of course she chose the top floor that few could ever afford. Luckily working for an evil genius had its benefits. When they got up to their room Lex went out on the balcony and looked over the beach and the hotels pool.

"You force me on vacation and I can't even go swimming." She groaned glaring at her tightly bandaged hands as Travis put her bags in the master bedroom. "Why did you have to wrap them so tightly?" She complained and Travis stopped her from trying to rip her bandages off with her teeth.

"Because you're never going to heal with as much as you've been using them so it's better if you keep them wrapped up the next few days so you don't rip your stitches out _again_." He explained before disappearing into his room.

Lex huffed and went into her room to change only to realize that she couldn't with her hands wrapped the way they were. She screamed out in frustration and knocked her suit case over on the bed. Travis came into her room dressed in blue swim shorts and a black tank top.

"You look weird in anything other than grey." She made a face at him.

"What are you screaming about?" He asked ignoring her comment. She held her hands up.

"I can't get changed or open my bag. Unless you feel like dressing me this whole time I suggest you let me unwrap my hands or wrap my fingers individually." She sat on her bed and crossed her arms.

"Fine, but if I see any bleeding I'm wrapping them back up." He said sternly and helped her unwrap her hands. After lots of groaning and yelling Lex finally got changed into her swimsuit and sat in the Jacuzzi with her hands out of the water while Travis swam in the pool. Luckily for them it was off season so there wasn't too many people there.

The first few days there Lex was extremely irritable and even Travis was getting annoyed with her. She didn't want to enjoy herself. He even attempted to take her to the beach which he regretted after only being there for a few moments and listeningto Lex complain that she was getting sand all in her bandages. He was afraid that she might be mad at him for the forced trip and not letting her have her laptop. The fourth day there she started to relax a bit becoming used to maneuvering her activities around her hands. She even went and enjoyed a massage. Travis decided they'd stay another week since she seemed to be lightening up.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Syndrome was surprised to find that Lex had actually left. After several un-productive days of attempted work he decided to leave Avian in charge of the Omni-Droid project for the next week or so while his hands healed up. Sitting on the end of Lex's bed he cursed himself for what he had done with Mirage. Mirage that was another problem all in itself. She had sent him several messages after what had happened between them. She wanted to see him again. He was avoiding her like the plague since it had happened.

He wanted nothing else to do with her, he was even tempted to just kill her. Unfortunately he needed her to carry out the rest of his plan. She knew how to find the locations of the retired supers with her connections through the NSA. So he had to put up with her for now. Where would Lex go? Travis went with her as well. He now knew that nothing was going on between them but it still bothered him.

Lex was so torn up when he last saw her. What did she do to hurt herself so badly? He ventured off to check the feeds to see what happened. The henchman in the security room took off as soon as they saw him as if they knew why he was there. Once they were gone he locked the doors and found what he was looking for. It hurt him to watch how quickly she broke down and see how angry she was when she saw him and Mirage on the feeds. It surprised him how much like him she really was watching her rage through the kitchen.

He felt torn inside as he watched Travis and a few others take her away from the bloody mess she had made, completely passed out from blood loss. She really did love him. Silent tears streamed down his face as he watched the video feeds of her up until she left. Angry with himself he went into the system and deleted the footage of him and Mirage from that day only to find that someone had made a copy of it.

Checking the file he got the time the copy was made and checked the feeds but no one left or came from the security room. The only place a copy can be made other than off of his and Lex's personal computers was in that room. After going over the video again he noticed one of his goons talking to someone on his headset looking rather scared and confused. He turned up the audio and heard him talking never indicating who he was talking to.

Hitting a button on the console in front of him he called him overhead to meet him in the security room. While he waited he traced who it was sent to, Mirage. When he got there he looked terrified and kept the door open behind him for a means of escape.

"What is this?" Syndrome asked calmly replaying the footage. He watched it with fear in his eyes. "Who are you talking to and why did you send them a copy of _that_?" He pointed to the screen in the background playing him and Mirage in the filing room. Of course he knew who it was he just wanted to hear him say it.

"I I don't know. They didn't say who it was I" He was cut off when the blue glow of Syndrome's zero point energy surrounded him.

"You're lying!" He screamed becoming angry and threw him out into the long corridor making him roll several feet from where he landed. Everyone nearby fled in fear. "Tell me who it was and I _might_ let you live." He threw him up in the air and let him fall catching him right before he hit the ground and threw him into the wall. He slid to the floor and rolled over onto his back.

"It was Mirage!" He yelled before being trapped in blue light again.

"There that wasn't so hard now was it?" Syndrome laughed throwing him into another wall. "Since you were the one that made the copy in the first place" He picked him up again and held him there. "You'll have to pay for it with your life." He said without emotion and flipped him around so he was suspended upside down and lifted him all the way up to the high ceiling and threw him down making him crush his skull and break his neck upon impact with the floor.

Syndrome turned and walked away in search of Mirage. It didn't take long to find her. He spotted her as she was leaving the break room. She saw him coming towards her and smiled at him. He had to hold back a laugh as she walked right up to him.

"Finally decided to stop avoiding me?" She asked and took a step closer to him and before she could get any closer he grabbed her hard by the shoulder and snatched the laptop she had out of her hands. "Hey let go! What're you doing?" She demanded and her confusion quickly turned into fear. Ignoring the pain in his fingers he pushed her as hard as he could and ripped the bottom panel of her laptop off and took the memory out, he walked away without another word, leaving her lying in the middle of the corridor.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Lex was laying in bed watching a sci-fi movie she ordered when she saw Travis pacing in the living room.

"Travis?" She asked becoming worried; he stopped in his tracks and looked to her. "What's wrong?"

"Well" He took a deep breath and sat on the edge of her bed. " Jerry third in charge of security was killed by Syndrome I guess Mirage had him make her a copy of the feeds from the filing room Syndrome found out. He's furious with her, he just ripped the memory out of her computer and no one's seen him since then" Lex didn't know what to think. What would Mirage want with a copy of that?

"When did this happen?" She was concerned.

"Two days ago" He looked away from her. She pulled the bandages off of her hands and slowly flexed her fingers. "What're you going to do?"

"Get me my laptop." She said and he didn't argue with her and returned with it. Waiting for it to warm up she continued to experimentally flex her fingers. Pulling it into her lap she navigated her computer as quickly as her stitched fingers would let her. When she found Syndrome she was confused as to why he'd stay there.

"He's in my room." She said turning the screen for Travis to see. He was sprawled out asleep in her bed.

"He must really love you if he's sleeping in your bed when you're gone It's probably driving him crazy that he doesn't know where you are and he can't check on you whenever he wants." Travis explained and Lex looked to him confused. "Oh come on you can't tell me you didn't know. You do the same thing to him why wouldn't he do it to you?"

"It's just irks me sometimes how much alike we are" She said sighing sadly and slowly closed her laptop shut.

"If you want we can go back to Nomanisan." Travis suggested sounding hopeful.

"Travis you know I can't do that. As much as I love him what he did was wrong. Besides we need real time apart instead of just avoiding each other." She explained shoving her laptop aside as she got out of bed and disappeared into the bathroom to change back into her swimsuit. It took forever to get it on since it was still wet from earlier and she had to maneuver around her stitches. After she finally got it on she was too frustrated to attempt to put on any shorts or a shirt.

"Where're you going?" Travis asked as she made her way to the door.

"Where does it look like I'm going? To the pool!" She snapped at him and slammed the door behind her. She was getting frustrated with having limited use of her hands and she was upset about Buddy. Her being gone seemed to be deeply affecting him. As mad as she was at him she just wished she could forget what he had done and take him back, but she was going to stand her ground. Once she was in the Jacuzzi she started to relax a little more. It was late at night so she was the only one out there.

She had her arms resting on a towel outside the water to keep her hands dry. Lying her head back she let herself relax and began to plan what things she wanted to work on once her dreadful stitches had been removed. There were several of Syndrome's inventions she wanted to try and improve. She was in the middle of thinking up ways to improve his zero point energy when she felt someone behind her.

When she opened her eyes she looked over her shoulder to see a large pair of hairy feet that belonged to a tall overly tanned and muscular man.

"Hey there cutie what're you doing out here all alone?" He asked attempting to be suave. Lex was instantly annoyed with him.

"I _was_ trying to relax." She said forcing herself to not instinctively ball her hands up into fists.

"Oh come on don't you want someone to keep you company." He said sitting next to her putting his feet in the Jacuzzi next to her and stared at her hands. "Whoa what happened to you? Did someone hurt you?" He actually sounded somewhat concerned.

"Yeah _I_ did this to _myself_." She explained and he gave her a scared look and was silent for a moment before getting up and leaving.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Syndrome rolled groggily out of bed, Lex's bed. He didn't know why but he felt if he slept in her room that she'd somehow come back sooner. Not knowing where she was, was driving him mad. He grabbed his laptop and looked up the jet's GPS finding it near a resort in Hawaii. After staring at the screen for a few moments he decided screw it and hacked into the resorts security system and found her. She was walking just getting out of the Jacuzzi and was headed back up to her room. He sighed when she disappeared into her room and shut his laptop.

His stomach started to growl at him so he got dressed and went to the kitchen. He was thankful no one else was in there not really in the mood to deal with anyone. After another night of sulking in Lex's room he returned to working on the Omni-Droid with the help of Avian. Luckily for him Mirage had made herself scarce.

He did his best to focus on his work and not think about Lex too much but it was difficult. It seemed like everything reminded him of her. He felt like he'd never escape the idiot mistake he made. Every night he'd check on Lex to find her either irritated or deep in thought. Then she finally left the hotel to go to the secondary base she was now so dedicated to working on.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Lex sat on the couch in the Jet working on her laptop to order some more food and supplies for her and the construction workers. They had been there for a few days and while they were on their little vacation they had already finished all of the foundation and had started on the outer walls. They had been staying in the jet since it was better than the small quarters they had set up for the workers there. She had taken her stitches out that morning and was glad to finally be rid of them especially since Travis made her wait a few extra days to take them out.

She sat and flexed her hands doing small exercises with them to get them back to their original flexibility and strength. Travis was out helping them with the construction even though he wasn't part of the construction crew leaving her alone. There was a light tone going off on the jets main computer. She knew exactly what it was and hit the button to turn the alarm off. Someone had hacked into the security system. She stared at the camera closest to her in the ceiling corner and waved at it.

"Hi Syndrome." She said doing her best to ignore the sadness that had suddenly washed over her. She knew it had to be him, no one else would know how to get into the system. "Remember I programmed the security on this thing, I know it's you." She sat down and opened her laptop and found him in her room again.

Syndrome was in shock that she caught him and quickly snapped out of it when he noticed she was back on her computer watching him.

"I see you're in my room again." She said and he was tempted to shut his laptop.

"I thought you disconnected the feeds in your room" He was confused.

"No I just made them restricted to everyone but me." She explained. Neither of them knew it but they were both struggling to sound as calm as they could.

"How are your hands?" He asked looking at his own scarred ones.

"They're fine, just took the stitches out this morning." She smiled weakly. "How're things going over there?"

"Good we're on task." He replied and they both sat there in silence watching each other.

"Well" They both said in unison.

"I should go see if they need my help out there" Lex said looking away from the camera as a tear streamed down her face.

"Yeah, I should really get back to the lab" Buddy agreed about ready to break from holding everything in.

Neither of them said another word and closed their computers at the same time breaking into tears. Buddy cursed himself for hacking into the feeds in the first place; he should have known she'd know he was watching. Lex screamed at herself for acknowledging that he was watching her. Why did she have to talk to him? In frustration she went over to the panel on the wall and ripped all the wires out that went into the security system making the whole thing shut off. She threw herself against the wall and slid to the floor sobbing into her hands.

Syndrome laid there in her bed letting the tears trail down his face and onto the pillows. He hated feeling like this, so vulnerable and weak. Never in his life did he think one person could have this much control over him and it was driving him crazy. At this point if he had the choice to either kill Incredible or have Lex forgive him and come back to him he'd choose her.

He opened his laptop to check on her to find that the whole security system was taken offline. Slamming the computer shut he did his best to calm himself down. Now he couldn't see her. The only other way to see her would be to hack into her computer and spy on her with her webcam, but he knew she'd know the second he did, besides he wasn't going to go that low just to see her. He could just video chat with her, but he knew how that would go. It'd be awkward and painful for the both of them.

He screamed out in frustration. What was she doing to him? He was going to all these lengths just to see her even if she didn't know he was watching her. It was so infuriating to know that she had this control over him and didn't even know it. He stormed out of her room and made his way to the lab leaving his computer in there, he'd be back.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Travis found Lex crying on the floor and saw the panel to the security system was open with all the wires pulled out. Once Lex calmed down a bit she explained to him what had happened. After they ate lunch together she went to grab her laptop from where she left it and Travis stopped her.

"What're you doing?" He asked suspiciously taking it from her. She gave him the death glare and he held it behind his back.

"I was just" Her face softened up. " I was going to check on him" She looked down to the floor.

"Lex you need to stop doing this. Either you're mad at him and you give him some space or you forgive him and we'll go back to Nomanisan." He said standing his ground.

"I'm mad at him but I just want to make sure he's ok I..."

"You can't keep doing this, it's not healthy. You're still angry with him, and you should be, so no more watching him through the feeds." He said sternly and left the jet taking her computer with him. She stared after him and did her best to convince herself that things would be easier on the both them this way, but she knew it was _not_ going to be easy.


	7. How We Cope

**_Night and day there's a burning down inside of me,  
Burning love with a yearning that won't let me be,  
Down I go and I just can't take it all alone,  
I really should be holding you holding you,  
Loving you loving you..._**

**_Tragedy By Celldweller_**

Syndrome was doing his best to keep himself busy the next couple of days. He walked into the lab to find Avian sitting inside the Omni-Droid attaching it's rotating eye to the power core while several henchman welded together one of the legs. Luckily things were on schedule and he went to work on the Omni-Droids artificial intelligence.

When he was in the middle of his work there was loud noise of something hitting metal and yelling coming from Avian. Syndrome rolled his eyes and did his best to ignore him and stay distracted with his work.

"Which one of you idiots turned the power core on?" Avian jumped out of the Omni-Droid with his short brown hair sticking out in every which way and one of the lenses on his glasses was cracked and there were black burn marks on the sleeves of his white lab coat. He shook his head and headed in Syndrome's direction. "Syndrome I don't mean anything against you by this, but your goons are fucking idiots."

"I'm well aware, but we need them right now so there isn't time to retrain or replace any of them." He said never looking up from his computer.

"Why can't we just have Lex and Travis help us? Hell I'd even deal with that airhead Mirage being my assistant." Avian suggested. Syndrome suddenly forgot all about his work and was furious Avian would even mention all three of them in the same sentence. He took in a deep breath to calm himself before speaking.

"You know why I can't do that" He still didn't turn and face him. Avian put his hand on Syndrome's shoulder and turned his chair around so they were facing each other.

"Yeah I do, we _all_ do. Don't think I don't pay attention. You've been burying yourself in work the past few days to keep yourself busy so you won't think about Lex and the whole thing that happened. But I'm not afraid to tell you what I really think unlike everyone else. Call her already and tell her to get back here." Avian snapped at him standing with his arms crossed awaiting a response. Syndrome was getting angry at him yet trying to hide how sad it made him wishing it really was that easy to get her to come back.

"It's not that easy! Trust me if it was I would have tried already!" He slammed his computer shut and began to leave.

"So you haven't tried then how do you know she'll say no?" Avian yelled after him just before the airlock doors shut behind him. He grumbled under his breath and made his way to his room. The rest of the day he sat in his room attempting call her but kept talking himself out of it and making up excuses as to why he shouldn't bother her.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Lex was starting to become rather annoyed with Travis. He wouldn't let her use her computer unless he was there with her. Then again she knew she'd check on Syndrome the second he left her alone. It was driving her mad and it didn't help that there wasn't much there for her to do. Sooner or later she'd have to go back to Nomanisan and either take a bunch of things to bring back with her to work on or stay there for awhile. Either way she'd most likely still have to see _him_. 

Travis sat next to her on the couch in the jet while she ordered some more supplies for the construction when she suddenly got an invite for video chat from Avian. She accepted it and pushed the laptop back a bit in her lap so she'd be on screen.

"Avian?" Lex asked as he appeared on the screen looking rather annoyed and disheveled.

"Lex I honestly don't know why you won't take him back or care but I need you to come back. Please I'm surrounded by idiots I can't even have a damn conversation with anyone around here and have them understand what the hell I'm talking about. Syndrome is always to wrapped up in his own work and too busy shutting everyone out to help me. Lex please?" He clasped his hands together and pleaded.

"Avian it's not that easy." Lex was surprised at his request.

"You know you both keep saying that, but really it's not that difficult. So what he thought you had moved on and he did something crazy. Just forgive him and come back here so we all don't have to suffer anymore!" He was becoming annoyed.

"No I'm not coming back. He hurt me intentionally! He went out of his way to make sure that I saw him betraying me. I would never do that even if the situation was reversed." Lex was furious that he just expected her to come back and act as if nothing had happened.

"You're both so damn stubborn! Fine if you won't come back can you at _least_ make a new training program for his idiot goons or hire some better ones?" He asked pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Fine, I can do that." She sighed knowing it would at least give her something to do helping to prolong going back to the island.

"Thank you, I better go before someone blows something up." He said and the chat ended.

"I'm sorry Lex but I have to agree with him" Travis admitted and she glared at him and he put his hands up defensively. "I'm just saying"

The rest of the afternoon she began writing a new training program for the goons with Travis's help. Over the next few days Lex actually got outside quite a bit and helped out with some of the construction now that her hands were back to their full flexibility. It was a nice change for her to finally be doing some hands on work.

After a week of working outside her and Travis sat down and finished making the new training program and sent it to Avian. The next day Lex was taking an afternoon nap had accidentally slept a lot longer than intended and was woken up by her phone that seldom ever rang. It took her a minute to even realize what the source of the obnoxious ringing was before she scrambled to find it. It was under her suitcase and froze when she read the caller ID, Syndrome was calling her. She snapped out of her shock and just as she went to hit the talk button the ringing had stopped.

Travis came in thirty minutes later to find her still in her pajamas sitting on the couch staring at her phone like it might explode at any moment.

"Lex what are you doing?" He was perplexed.

"Syndrome called me. He might call back." She looked hopeful.

"He called you? Did you guys talk?" He was so confused.

"No, I didn't get to it in time. But that doesn't mean he won't try again." She said sounding a bit off.

"Why don't you just call him back?" He suggested.

"That defeats the whole purpose." She said a bit annoyed and Travis rubbed his temples in annoyance.

"Lex I'm your friend, so please _listen_ to me. You need to _stop_ doing this. It seems to me like you're purposely putting him through emotional hell as if some sort of revenge for what he did with Mirage. You obviously miss him just forgive him already you've tortured him enough!" Travis finally snapped. Lex looked at him as if she was just insulted and he snatched her phone off of the couch and took her laptop out from its hiding place. "You're not getting these back. If you want to talk to him or see him you will have to go and do it in person." He said firmly and locked the door to his room behind him.

Lex sat there on the couch completely shocked at what he had said. She wasn't torturing him. Was she? No, she was mad at him and despite how much she loved him and missed him she still couldn't bring herself to forgive him so easily, or could she? She went into her room and quickly got changed then called Avian to have him come and pick her up. Before she left she put a note on the table for Travis to find letting him know that she was going back to the island to talk to Syndrome and possibly stay.

She had finally decided that Travis was right. In a way she was torturing Buddy, he was obviously sorry for what he had done. She knew things may not exactly go back to normal but they would be better. The trip back to the island with Avian felt a lot longer than it really was luckily what felt like ten hours was really only four.

"I knew it was only a matter of time before you would come to your senses. I can't wait to have you back. Hopefully things will get better around here fast. Hell maybe Syndrome will just finally kill Mirage!" He said happily and Lex looked at him oddly. "Well he told me he was thinking about it when you first left but she still hasn't located Incredible yet. Honestly I think she knows and just isn't telling us"

The rest of the trip consisted of his rambling about accidents in the lab and many other various things. She was so happy once she was off the jet and back in the large corridors of Nomanisan. It was rather late at night or really early in the morning depending on how you looked at it and she decided to go to her room and get a bit of sleep before talking to Buddy. When she got to her room she found Buddy sprawled out on her bed snoring lightly.

Her heart stopped in her chest when she saw him afraid of waking him up. He was still sleeping in her room? She was so tempted to just crawl under the covers and cuddle up to him, but she knew that it might possibly end badly if she did that. Afraid to step any further into the room she took her three steps back out and quietly closed the door.

Since he had fallen asleep in her bed then she might as well sleep in his. Once in his room she noticed how untouched it looked, as if he always slept in her room now. It made her sad to think about. Despite how anxious she was about talking to him in the morning she fell asleep within minutes.

Syndrome opened his heavy eyes to find that he was in Lex's room. His head was pounding and his body ached. Staring at the broken bottle on the floor beside the bed he knew why his head was hurting, but why was he so sore? Then he slowly began to remember, after he attempted to call Lex and she didn't answer he was furious but didn't feel like killing something for once, instead he found a large bottle of vodka that he came upon a few weeks ago in the kitchen. He had never drank before and when he started drinking the bottle was only half full and after drinking half of what was left Mirage found him in the kitchen and she dragged him back to her room.

She had taken advantage of him, and he actually didn't even put up a fight. He welcomed it. Shaking his head he tried to convince himself that he didn't like what he had done with her, again, but he did. He had lost himself in her and it made him forget about the pain of not having Lex. He remembered Mirage leading him back to his room but didn't remember coming into Lex's room. He stumbled to the bathroom and took something for his head and rinsed the awful vodka aftertaste that lingered in his mouth before heading back to his room.

As horrible as it would be seen through Lex's eyes maybe Mirage was a way for him to cope. What did it matter, Lex obviously wasn't going to forgive him anytime soon. He knew she missed him but obviously not enough to even call him back or forgive him. Once he was in his room he stripped down to his boxers in the dark and felt his way into bed. He rolled to the middle of the bed only to find that someone else was already there and his arm landed on them.

Who in the world would be in his bed? Only one other person besides himself had access to his room

"Lex?" He asked and she stirred in her sleep. He turned the lamp on by his side of the bed to find that it really was her. "Lex why are you in my room?" He was suddenly angry. Why would she be here? She groaned and turned over in bed to face him and her eyes went wide. Shaking herself awake she blinked a few times to make sure he was really there then she recomposed herself and attempted to remember the things she rehearsed in her head.

"Buddy sorry I stole your bed but you were in mine and I figured it'd be too weird for you to wake up next to me before we got to talk. But I guess we can talk now" She suddenly felt discouraged noticing how angry he looked to find her there.

"Why are you here?" He demanded partially confused by the way she was talking to him as if she wasn't mad at him anymore.

"I came to talk to you. I could have called but I'd rather do it in person, plus Travis took my laptop and phone away from me. I'm sorry I've been so horrible to you lately." She said sadly and reached a hand out touching his face. He was completely and utterly confused and pushed her hand away from him. There was no way this was happening. Of course she'd come right after he decided he would be fine without her so long as Mirage was willing. He shook his head in disbelief.

"No." Was his one word answer and Lex looked to him with sadness in her eyes. "I'm not going to just take you back that easily. You've been gone watching me this whole time while I'm over here miserable because of you. You deactivated the security on the jet so I couldn't watch you and you couldn't even call me back earlier? Why should I let you back in when you kept shoving me out?" He asked coldly making Lex feel like she was just stabbed in the heart.

"I know I should have called you back and I'm sorry about the camera's on the jet I got angry and pulled all the wiring out of the security panel after the last time we talked. And by the way I haven't been watching you Travis wouldn't let me. He finally talked some sense into me and of course you're the one mad at me now. How long are we going to do this? I can't take it much longer. Can you?" She knew he had every right to be mad at her but was he really going to hold it over her head? What had happened since he tried to call her earlier that night?

"I'll be just fine." He replied harshly. Lex knew he was serious and a tear streamed down her face.

"What happened after you called me? Something must've happened that made you change your mind." She asked trying her best to keep calm.

" Let's just say I figured out how to cope with the pain. Now get out of my room." He demanded and she quickly ran out of his room and into the large corridor. Once she was gone he turned his lamp off and turned on the sound proofing system in his room to block out Lex's screaming cries that were echoing down all the corridors.

Lex couldn't hold back anymore. She just sat in the middle of the large hallway outside his door violently screaming and crying. Several goons had left their quarters to see what was going on and they all quickly fled afraid of what might happen if they approached her. Finally Avian found her and sedated her and dragged her off to his room and laid her out on the couch. When she awoke several hours later Travis was sitting beside her.

"Where the in the hell is Avian I'm going to punch him so hard for sedating me" She growled as she sat up on the couch.

"I'm sorry I don't do well with screaming hysterical girls so I did the only thing I could think of to get you to calm down and called Travis." He looked a bit nervous like he was hiding something and she looked at him questioningly. His eyes went wide and he quickly left the room.

"I listened to the feeds in his room from last night and watched a few others Lex" He looked to her with fear and sadness in his eyes. She knew something wasn't right and was almost afraid to know.

"Whatever it is just tell me and get it over with" She said rubbing her sore eyes.

"Figured out what he meant by coping with the pain Mirage" He explained sadly. Lex felt like she couldn't breathe for a moment then she recomposed herself and the sadness she should have felt instantly turned into anger. She was done being miserable and turned to Travis who looked a bit afraid of her.

"Take my laptop and copy all of Syndrome's invention files to it please. I'm going to grab a few things out of the lab to take back to the construction site with us, have the jet ready to go." She instructed and made her way to Syndrome's lab with a large duffle bag gathering all kinds of things she knew she'd need and filled it until it was almost too heavy for her. She pulled one Syndrome's first prototypes for the zero point energy out of the large closet filled with his other failed inventions.

It wasn't exactly a glove but more of a wire frame that wrapped around your wrist and framed your fingers and covered the tips of your fingers. There was a small trigger button in the palm and the power source and microchip controlling it was in a small patch on the back of the hand. Lex quickly grabbed the parts she needed and began tinkering with it. After a few adjustments she tested it out and was satisfied with how it worked and headed for the jet with her heavy bag of parts and tools.

Travis was coming up behind her in the jet hanger and he took the bag from her carrying her laptop under his arm.

"Get ready to leave the second I jump on. I'll be right back." She explained and Travis gave her a worried look before disappearing onto the jet. Lex made her way back inside and ran into a goon.

"Where's Mirage?" She demanded and he told her without hesitation she was on her way to meet Syndrome in the main lab. As she kept an eye out for her she readied the device on her hand by switching it on and letting it charge up. Standing outside the lab door she punched one of the lights in the wall and grabbed onto the sparking wires with the device. It electrocuted her for a few seconds before the device diverted the electricity away from her body and into it. Once she was sure she had enough power she let go of the wires and took a step away from the wall.

She experimentally shot a bolt of electricity out of the tips of her fingers using her new invention. Smiling evilly to herself she stood in front of the airlock doors with her hand at her side. She was going to kill Mirage and nothing was going to stop her. Buddy was hers and no one else could have him. Entering through the first airlock door she looked through the small window to see Mirage sitting in front of the computer closest to the door and Syndrome was nowhere to be seen. Avian looked confused as he talked on his headset and worked on one of the claws for the Omni-Droid.

She was thankful that Syndrome wasn't there so she wouldn't have to worry about him stopping her. The airlock opened and she stepped inside. The goons in the room saw her and fled as quickly as they could. Mirage turned around in her seat and her eyes went wide with fear when she saw Lex coming at her. She froze in fear and Lex wrapped her hand with the device on it around her throat strangling her as she sent jolts of electricity through her small body. Once she was unconscious Lex dropped her to the ground and pointed her hand at her, but before she could do anything a needle was shoved into her neck and everything went black.

Syndrome was on his way to the lab when he saw Lex being dragged away by Travis and Avian.

"What happened?" He asked knowing she probably did something rash and destructive. Travis ignored him.

"Well to put it simply she was going to kill Mirage by electrocuting her to death, honestly I would have let her but Travis called me and told me what she was up to so I sedated her again." Avian explained.

"What do you mean again?" He was confused and a bit worried about Lex.

"You can't tell me you didn't hear her screaming her head off this morning. I didn't know what else to do so I sedated her and called Travis. Oh and by the way this is your fault." Avian said all matter of factly and continued on with Travis leaving Syndrome standing in the middle of the corridor.

He stood there and watched them drag Lex off until they were out of sight. Of course he knew that something like this would happen. She tried to kill Mirage, it wasn't very surprising. He went into the security room and watched what had happened in the main lab. It surprised him to see that she had taken an old prototype for his zero point energy and had converted it into an energy projector. He went into the lab and began working trying to take his mind off of what had happened. Not after long Avian returned.

"I'm kind of mad at you." Avian mumbled at him as he entered the lab.

"What did I do? _She's_ the one that waited too long to forgive me." He spat back at him. "Then she gets mad at me for my choice and tries to kill Mirage."

"She's wanted to kill her since day one can you blame her? Besides what would you have done if the situation was reversed?" Avian asked with a smile already knowing the answer.

"I would of I would of actually killed her. If I can't have her then no one can." He said angrily.

"Exactly. Now stop talking to me. The only girl that I can actually carry a real intelligent conversation with and stand to be around for longer than ten minutes is now miserable and in lots of emotional pain because of _you_." Avian growled at him and returned to his work without another word. Syndrome was getting annoyed that Avian and Travis were so close to Lex now and he wasn't. But it didn't matter, no matter how much he would miss her, he still couldn't bring himself to forgive her for putting him through what she did, not yet


	8. Fall For You

**_Breathe in so deep, breathe me in, I'm yours to keep And hold onto your words, because talk is cheap Tonight will be the night that I will fall for you, over again Don't make me change my mind Or I won't live to see another day, I swear it's true Because a girl like you is impossible to find, impossible to find..._**

**_Fall For You By Secondhand Serenade_**

The first few months Lex was gone Syndrome spent almost every night with Mirage. The only problem he had with her was when she actually started to try and talk to him. She'd ask him questions about his life and he'd just ignore her. Luckily she never really pressed the questions on any further once she realized he wasn't ever going to answer. After a year had gone by he started to notice that things weren't as on task as they should be and things weren't getting done properly either. Another year went by and he noticed that every once in awhile some of the video feeds would get deleted.

He had just finished his eighth version of the Omni droid and was waiting for Mirage to deliver the next super to him. She was off in the states delivering the message to Gazerbeam to get him to come to the island and Avian had left to go and help Lex and Travis with whatever they were working on like he always did after they finished the new Omni-Droid. He knew they were working on his second base and lately it had really started to bother him that she seemed so intent on getting it finished. It had been two years since he had seen her. She never even came back to get supplies, instead she'd have Avian bring her things when he'd come and visit her between working on the Omni-Droids.

As he stared at his computer sitting next to him in the lab he opened it and attempted for the first time to check on the security feeds in the jet knowing that they were probably still disconnected. But when he clicked on them he found they had been reconnected. He listened to make sure he didn't trip any alarms and none had gone off. Lex was the only one there. She looked different more focused and serious than he remembered.

He attempted to zoom in on what she was looking at so intently on her screen but just as he did she shifted her sitting position so he couldn't see. Did she know he was watching? Maybe, but if she did why wouldn't she say anything? The airlock door to the lab opened and one of his goons walked in pushing a cart full of new supplies to stock it with and he instantly shut his computer. He rested his face in his gloved hands. Why was he checking on her in the first place? He was doing just fine without her but other things on the island weren't.

The goons were better trained now and they were getting things done. But it seemed like some things in the lab would disappear or a part they needed would go missing for days. There really was no way to find out who was behind it since they seemed to cover their tracks pretty well. Whoever it was also had to be the one behind the missing video feeds. He was starting to suspect sabotage. But who would do that that was smart enough to do the things being done? He shook his head and went off to his room and fell asleep pondering all the possibilities.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Lex was trying so hard to keep herself calm after she caught Syndrome trying to watch her. She had purposely fixed the security system on the jet knowing that he might eventually break down and try to spy on her. Only this time she made it so that her computer would silently let her know he was watching her. Luckily she caught it in time so he couldn't see what she was doing. While he was watching her he caught her while she was working on recovering the lost video feeds that had started to disappear randomly over the last two years. Of course she already knew who was messing with the videos, Mirage.

She knew that she had to be up to something. She always seemed to be sneaking around where the camera's couldn't see her and she was so tempted to go back to the island just to upgrade the security system and install more camera's and voice feeds. Luckily her new training program for the goons had worked out nicely and Avian was rather thankful for it. The second base was almost complete. The only thing left to do was to finish installing all the doors and furnish it.

Avian would come and help them out every so often so he could get away from Nomanisan and him and Travis would help on the construction. Today they were installing cameras and the rest of the security system.

Lex had only cried over what had happened between her and Buddy the first few days after she left Nomanisan. Since then she had been blocking out all of her emotions towards him and focusing on other things, putting up an emotional barrier. All she ever did was work in the lab at the second base and order more supplies for the construction. When Avian was there he'd try and get her to talk more along with Travis and she'd just lock herself away in the lab so they couldn't bother her.

"Hey Travis and I were thinking about going to the states for a little vacation you want to come?" Avian asked as Lex sat on her computer watching the old feeds frome Nomanisan carefully now that she knew for sure that it was Mirage who was the one deleting some of the feed files. The new head of security at Nomanisan had told her and was helping her keep an eye on Mirage. Unfortunately they found out that Mirage had been bribing other guards but they never said with what. She looked up from the screen at him.

"I went on vacation two years ago I don't need to go on another one." She replied and turned back to her computer.

"Are you sure? We were thinking about hitting up a bunch of Six Flags and maybe Disney World or something. Come on I don't know when I'll have this much free time again since Mirage seems to be taking her sweet time delivering the next super to Syndrome. Please?" He begged and she glared up at him over the rims of her glasses.

"No Avian I don't like going on vacations. My last one was forced if you don't remember." She snapped and Avian sighed and left the jet. Lex huffed in annoyance and continued her work. Mirage was in the states to get the next super for Syndrome and Lex couldn't seem to find her anywhere. The last time she was in the jet that brought her there was a few days ago. She gave up on watching Mirage and went back to messing with the video feeds to attempt to recover any of the deleted files. After not too long Travis entered the jet and began packing a few things to take with him.

"You know I really wish you'd come with us. You need to get away from all of this. All you've been doing is occupying yourself on finding evidence against Mirage and working on Syndrome's inventions. Please you need to get out and do something besides work. I know it's hard, I know you've purposely been distracting yourself but you need to let your emotions out sometime." He said with concern.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm fine! I don't need a vacation! Why must you and Avian always bother me while I'm trying to work!" She yelled and closed her computer taking it with her as she left the jet.

"Because you're _always_ working!" Travis yelled after her. She ignored him and walked through the base to the lab. Once inside she locked the door behind her. She stared at her computers screen blankly as she listened to Avian's jet take off outside. After staring at all the files and codes she was trying to use to recover the deleted feeds she soon realized that she'd only be able to get them restored by doing it from the security room itself back on Nomanisan.

She watched Syndrome as he sat in his lab working on something looking rather perplexed and annoyed. Avian was off with Travis and Mirage was supposedly delivering the message to the next super to get him to come to the island. If there were ever a time she was going to sneak around now would be the time. The only problem was avoiding Syndrome. With as long as she had been keeping her emotions under control over the last two years she still wasn't sure that she could handle seeing him, but it was a risk she'd have to take. If she could get anything on Mirage she'd be able to tear her apart with it when the right time came.

Just in case she did run into Syndrome she grabbed her new invention. It was something small but it'd come in handy for her and for Syndrome if he ever needed it. She put the bracers on each wrist and snapped them shut. They were zero point energy deflectors and made it impossible to be engulfed by Syndrome's zero point energy. Over the past two years she had made herself her own pair of zero point energy gloves which she grabbed along with a few other things and headed back to the jet. Before taking off she alerted the new head of security that she was coming but didn't want anyone to know that she was there and took off towards Nomanisan.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Syndrome tossed his soldering gun across the table in annoyance. He wasn't even entirely sure why he was working on that particular invention in the first place. It was supposed to be a mini camera the size of a pebble that he could attach to anything he wanted for extra surveillance, but it was so small and his patience was running low. Mirage had been gone for over a week now and with the Omni-Droid done and Avian gone there really wasn't much to do now that everything was finally back on task.

He grumbled to himself and retrieved the soldering gun from across the table and put his supplies away and headed to the kitchen to have some lunch. The base was awfully quiet and it was driving him mad. He was almost tempted to check on Lex again, but stopped himself and instead headed to the security room to further investigate the missing video feeds. When he entered the head of security was there looking rather suspicious.

"What're you up to? Are you the one that's been deleting the feeds?" Syndrome demanded pointing at him.

"No sir, but I've been looking into them a lot. I don't think you'll like what I have to say though" He looked scared.

"And what's that?" He asked angrily about ready to throw him to the ceiling with his zero point energy.

"I don't know how to recover any of the deleted files, but from what I've heard from others is it's Mirage" He said taking a step back from Syndrome.

"That's impossible! You're lying!" He pointed at him and trapped him in the blue glow of his zero point energy. The door on the other side of the room opened.

"Syndrome put him down!" Lex yelled at him and stepped in between him and the head of security blocking his zero point energy making him lose his grip on him.

"Lex?" Syndrome was in complete shock, she was there and she had somehow canceled out his zero point energy. What was going on? Lex turned to the frightened head of security and motioned for him to leave. She took in a deep breath and faced Syndrome who looked completely lost. "How did you why are you here?" His confusion turned to anger.

"Nice to see you too." She replied coldly and sat down at the security console and took out her laptop that was sitting in the cubby below connected to the console's computer. "I'm here to restore the deleted files and prove to you that Mirage is the one sabotaging you. You can't tell me I'm wrong, do you ever even watch her on here? Oh wait never mind I forgot you don't like her enough to do that. She's just your method of forgetting about me" She said without emotion and Syndrome was so furious and confused. How could she just say something like that to him without any emotion? What was wrong with her? She seemed so detached from her words.

"Lex, you know it's not like that she" He attempted to explain knowing there was no explanation and she turned around in her chair to face him.

"Yes it is like that! You're the one that said you found a way to cope with the pain, by being with her. I can't even fathom how you think that's better. I've _never_ been with anyone other than _you_! Never! Yet you go with her and you can't even see all the wrong she does. You know she's been bribing other goons around here to keep quiet about all the things she's been doing behind your back? Do you? I don't know how she's been bribing them but I sure have a good idea! How can you" Her angry rant was cut short when Syndrome grabbed Lex by the shirt and pulled her into a kiss.

Buddy was so sick of everything, sick of being mad at her, sick of watching her hold back everything because she was afraid of breaking down, so sick of playing this stupid game they were playing, never in his life did he want anything more than he wanted her to be by his side at all times. His lips crushed hers and she was completely caught off guard and had to cling to him so she wouldn't fall over. She couldn't even fight him off she completely melted under him and all her barriers had crumbled.

He wrapped his arms tightly around her knowing she might break at any moment. When their kiss ended her eyes were filled with anger and tears making him take a step back from her. She pushed away from him with all her strength making him hit the wall behind him.

"That's not fair!" She screamed at him through her tears. "You knew I'd crumble to you! Leave me alone!" She hit the button to open the door and trapped him in the blue glow of her zero point energy and threw him out into the middle of the corridor locking the door it once it closed. Fighting through her tears she worked as fast as she could to recode the lost feeds so she could just save them to her laptop and leave. She could hear Syndrome beating at the door and zapping it with his zero point energy.

She had her own gloves now. It was so hard to process that she'd use his own invention against him and completely refuse him like she did.

"Damn it Lex let me in!" He was getting frustrated. He couldn't deny that he deserved what she had done but he just wanted her back, he was so sick and tired of feeling nothing with Mirage. He felt dead inside without her. Without Lex all he had was revenge. Finally the door opened and Lex rushed past him carrying her laptop.

"Lex where are you going!" He yelled running after her. He chased her all the way out to the jet hangar. He flew over her and landed between her and the jet. "Lex please just stay! I don't want you to leave!" He pleaded standing on the steps that led into the jet blocking her way.

"Move!" She demanded through her tears.

"No, Lex please just stay one night just one." He was practically begging now. It hurt to see her in so much pain as she fought with herself. She glared at him wishing he'd just let her leave and let her be alone in her pain and misery. Then she started thinking of all the things that could happen if she did stay.

"So what if I do stay? Then what? You're with Mirage, hell you've been with her twice as long as we were together. I know you're not with her that often anymore but that doesn't change the fact that you're the one that chose her. What're you going to do then when I leave? Go right back to her? I can't do this" She cried holding her arm across her chest like she was trying to hold herself together.

"Lex I don't even like her. I'm just using her, you should know that by now. At first yes I was using her to try and forget about you, but now the only reason she's still here is so I can find Incredible. She probably is the one that's been sabotaging things. I won't go back to her. I just want you back by my side, I love you" He pleaded placing his gloved hand on her cheek. She stared back at him as a tear left his eye streaming from his mask and down his freckled face and she leaned into his hand before jerking away and quickly shoved past him onto the jet.

She threw her laptop onto the couch and she fought herself trying to convince herself that leaving was what she wanted. Buddy quickly ran in front of her before she made it to the pilot's cabin and Lex trapped him in her zero point energy. She stood there and after a moment she collapsed to her knees crying uncontrollably releasing him.

"I can't do it I can't do it" She shook her head and Buddy kneeled beside her and she looked up at him. "Don't let me leave." She pleaded and he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap holding her as she buried her face into his chest. They sat there until Lex had calmed down and they just sat on the couch in the jet and talked.

Syndrome told her his finalized plan of the Omni-Droid. Once they found Incredible and killed him he was going to launch the final Droid to attack Incredible's home town and go from there. They talked about Mirage and watched the videos she had recovered. Syndrome was beyond furious. Mirage had been very discreetly sabotaging the Omni-Droids by taking parts from it and destroying them or ripping out a wire here and there. The worst part was when they found out how she was bribing some of the goons to get into the security room to delete the feeds. Lex was right; she would perform sexual favors for them or threaten them.

"I'm going to strangle the life out of her the second she delivers me Incredible" He threatened through gritted teeth. "That little all of them involved will _pay_." He took in a deep breath to attempt to calm himself but it was no use. Lex set her laptop aside and put her hands on either side of his face and pulled him into a kiss catching him off guard. He fell into the kiss and as she attempted to pull away he didn't want to let go, but she pushed away gasping for air.

"Buddy I'm not ready for that yet please understand" She explained knowing what he was trying to do. "I was just trying to help calm you down I just"

"It's ok. It's just been so long since we were together. I miss _us_." He smiled and stroked her cheek with the back of his gloved hand. "So earlier how in the hell did you cancel out my zero point energy?" He asked eyeing her black gloves and the small bracers attached to them.

She explained the bracers to him and they walked to the kitchen to make some dinner as they talked about the other inventions she had been working on. Buddy insisted on cooking and decided to make chocolate chip pancakes. He had taken his mask off and they both removed their bracers and gloves revealing their scarred hands. Lex took him by the hand and examined his scars and he did the same to her. He kissed her hands all over and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'm sorry about everything I did... I will _never_ hurt you like that again." He swore and picked her up sitting her on the counter. "Now you stay here I'll do all the cooking." He smiled and ran off into the pantry before she could protest.

They sat in the break room eating their over sized misshapen chocolate chip pancakes as all the goons in the room stared at them in awe. Syndrome did his best not to laugh as they were watched as if they might suddenly explode. Lex was amused at how everyone was in complete shock to see them yet unable to contain themselves that she was actually back.

"You know what would go good with these?" Buddy said and Lex looked at him questioningly. "Strawberries." He smiled and she glared at him over the top of her glasses and she pulled the emergency epinephrine kit she always had on her and tapped her fingers on it. "You still carry that with you?"

"Of course I do, why wouldn't I?" She asked.

"I love you." He said with a smile.

"I love you." She said happily.

Once they were done with dinner they were on their way to his room when a henchman ran past them as fast as he could making Syndrome stop in his tracks the second he saw his face and quickly turned on his heels. Lex trapped him with her zero point energy before Syndrome could.

"He's one of them." She said and he knew exactly what she meant. It was one of the goons that Mirage used to get to the security feeds through _bribery_.

"Honey I'm going to borrow these" He took the chopstick out of Lex's hair making it fall loosely down to her shoulders. He hit them together making them spark on and a line of electricity flowed between them. Lex threw the goon to the floor and as he scrambled to his feet Syndrome put the ends of the chopsticks to either side of his head making him convulse and fall to the floor twitching. He hit the sticks off and turned and handed them back to Lex.

"So I noticed you upped the voltage." He said casually as they continued to his room leaving the goon twitching and convulsing in the middle of the corridor. Lex nodded and took him by the hand after putting her hair back up in a bun with them.

"Yeah now instead of seventy five it's up to one fifty volts. So he's lucky he's not dead." She said with a smile as he opened to door to his room and picked her up bridal style making her laugh as he carried her to his bed after kicking the door shut.

He set her on the edge of the bed and began stripping down to his boxers when he looked back to Lex she was sitting in just her underwear watching him undress.

"See anything you like?" He asked posing, making Lex roll her eyes at him before turning out the light and pulling him into bed and under the covers with her. They both felt around for each other in the dark and Buddy pulled her close wrapping his arms around her as if she might attempt to get away. She snuggled into his chest never wanting to leave. They both laid there afraid to sleep in fear of waking up to find that it was all just a dream.

Buddy was sure Lex was asleep and kissed her on the forehead and her hand wrapped around the back of his neck pulling him into a kiss. When she released him they were both breathing heavily.

"I can't sleep for the life of me." She breathed.

"Me either" He admitted and she rested her forehead on his their lips almost touching. They just laid there breathing on each other's lips.

"Oh who in the hell are we kidding?" Lex laughed nervously and pulled Buddy on top of her slowly trailing her hands down his sides sending a shiver of heat down his spine. He leaned into her and she wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him into another kiss.


	9. Love, Justice, Problem?

When Lex woke the next morning and had to wiggle her way out of Buddy's arms. As she sat up in bed her muscles ached and she let herself fall back to her pillow. Buddy stirred awake beside her and turned over onto his side and smiled as he opened one eye to see Lex staring back at him longingly.

"I don't wanna..." Lex groaned and snuggled up to him.

"We could stay in bed all day if you want to. There really isn't much to do until the next super gets here so" He smiled and slowly trailed a hand up her leg making her eyes go wide. She quickly pulled his hand away and kissed it.

"Too early and too sore. I think I need a day or two to recover from last night. It's been so long I'm not used to it anymore." She admitted and he smiled deviously back at her.

"I'll have to fix that." He threatened making Lex hide her face in her pillow. He kissed her neck sending a shiver down her spine. She shuttered and glared at him.

"Too early!" She rolled on top of him and kissed the freckles below his eyes.

"I love you." He smiled and placed a kiss on her nose.

"I love you more." She rested her head on his bare chest and he stroked her messy hair.

"I doubt that's possible." He said with a smirk. "Want some breakfast?"

"Yes please." She rolled off of him her feet landing on the floor and she could feel the soreness in her legs and she let out a groan. She made her way to the bathroom and Buddy soon followed.

After they enjoyed a nice long shower together they both got dressed and geared up with their gloves and gauntlets and Syndrome strapped his boots on. As they left his room he put his eyes mask on and grabbed Lex taking her glasses off and placing her own mask over her eyes. She felt it and took it off to look at it.

"Really? I don't think it suits me. I'll look retarded with my glasses on over it." She complained.

"That's why you wear your contacts I got you." He smiled and held in his gloved hand a small contact lens case out to her.

"When did you get these?" She raised an eyebrow and took them from him.

"Last night I ordered them while we were making dinner when you weren't looking. Will you wear them?" He asked his blue eyes lighting up.

"Why wouldn't I?" She smiled and went to the mirror and put the contacts in leaving her glasses on his nightstand and when she returned to him in the doorway he put the eye mask over her eyes. "So what brought this on?" She asked pointing to her mask as they walked down the corridor hand in hand to the kitchen.

"I figured since I have a secret identity then so should you. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you. Besides, I think it makes you look even more beautiful than you were before, which I thought was impossible but" He was cut short when she pulled him into a kiss.

"You talk too much." She grinned up at him. "So does that mean I have to wear spandex?" She whined. "And I honestly can't think of any cool name for myself since you took the best one."

"You don't have to but it'd make me feel better if you had some sort of protection to wear. I can get shot in this thing and come out of it with only a bruise. But you" He trailed off not even wanting to think of the possibilities of something happening to her.

"I know, I'll design _something_ for myself, but not spandex, it's just not my thing." She laughed eyeing him up and down. They ate and talked about possible names for her only coming up with ridiculous things like Syn Girl and Conundrum. By the time they finished eating they soon noticed that there were no goons in sight. As they were leaving the kitchen the head of security ran up to them.

"So glad you're awake we have something for the both of you." He said sounding rather pleased with himself. "If you'll follow me." He lead the way to the transport pods and Syndrome looked at him suspiciously.

"What are you up to?" Syndrome asked bluntly.

"It's kind of a surprise." He said looking a bit scared now.

"Oh stop it, just get in I want to see what it is." Lex said with an excited smile and pulled him into the pod beside her and head of security got in the one in front of them and they took off. Syndrome was paying close attention to where they were going and he soon figured out they were going to the training area. Lex was anxious to see what they had put together and kissed Syndrome on the cheek making him snap out if his stern suspicious trance. "Whatever it is you better be nice." She warned as they arrived in the training area. There were several goons up on the upper level observation deck looking down on them and about twenty others were gagged and bound to several vipers and velocipods with a few other goons guarding them.

"So why are we here?" Syndrome asked un-amused and Lex elbowed him as she soon realized just who was being presented to them.

"It's a gift from all of us. We rounded up everyone involved in helping Mirage for you and strapped them to the vipers and velicopods with their weapons disabled so you could enjoy taking them down." The head of security explained with a smile. "Our little way of saying thank you for coming back Lex."

Lex looked to Syndrome and he looked to her and they both had devious smiles on their faces.

"So when do we start?" Syndrome asked cracking his knuckles.

"Now if you like." He said and Syndrome and Lex both nodded. He motioned towards them in the center of the room and then went and switched their vehicles on and ran out of the way and up to the observation deck with everyone else. They were strapped so their hands were on the controls so they could still maneuver their vehicle prisons. They all took off and Lex and Syndrome made their way to the center of the room as the electrical pillars lining the room sparked on.

The blue glow of zero point energy filled the room as they quickly took down the first half of them. Three of them purposely crashed themselves into the ground and the remaining actually started to try and fly at them making Syndrome laugh maniacally. One was about to get Lex from behind and he quickly grabbed her with one arm and flew them out of the way with is rocket boots. She held onto him tightly and pulled two more down as he flew around chasing after the one that went after Lex until he slammed him into another one making them explode. He set her down out of the way and she let him finish the rest off seeing the anger in his eyes.

He took all of them down in a matter of seconds throwing them all over the room and smashing them into the electrified pillars. Only one was left and he seemed to be rather good at maneuvering his velocipod. Syndrome couldn't seem to catch him. He was beyond angry. How dare they attempt to go after Lex. He flew up with is boots and landed right on the velocipod and slammed his fist into the control panel making it drop in mid flight and scrape loudly along the floor. He never faltered standing over the goon strapped to his seat trying to scream through the rope around his mouth as they skidded to a stop only a few feet away from one of the electrified pillars lining the room.

Using his zero point energy he ripped the goon from his bindings to the velocipod and dropped him in midair catching him by the throat holding him up for everyone to see.

"Let this be a warning to _all_ of you! If you hurt her in _any_ way you will be dead on the spot and I promise it _won't_ be a quick death either." He threatened them all and threw the goon into the electrified pillar behind him and watched him twitch and sizzle until he was sure his body was only moving due to the electricity pulsing through him. He then flew to Lex and they both left together in a transport pod without another word.

Lex was somewhat surprised at how angry it had made him when one of the goons had attempted to go after her. Then again it also showed how much he cared for her. She leaned into him and he wrapped an arm around her as the transport took them back to the main part of the lab. She kissed him on the cheek and his stern expression softened a little. When they exited the pod they headed to the lab.

So I noticed you've been practicing with your gloves." He said before they entered the lab.

"Yeah I practiced with them every few days once I finished them. There really wasn't too much to do other than work on your inventions or help out with the construction." She admitted as they sat at the work table.

"Speaking of which, how long are you staying?" He asked hoping she'd never leave.

"I would like to stay. But once you hear from Mirage I'll leave before she gets here and I'll go back to the other base." She explained and his expression saddened. "It'll be easier for you to get the locations of the rest of the supers this way she doesn't suspect anything."

"Why does it matter if she knows we're back together? I don't want you to leave." He pleaded. He knew she'd come back but he didn't want to be away from her not after finally getting her back.

"Do you really think she'll help you if she knows that we're back together? I don't your plans to get ruined because of me. I promise I'll come and see you whenever she's not here." She explained doing her best to sound confident in her words. She really didn't want to leave. But she didn't want to put his plans anymore behind than they already were.

"You're right" He said sadly when an idea popped in his head. "I'll just send her away to do all my business deals for me. I just need to get a hold of some of my contacts that I know will want to buy some of my inventions and keep her busy so she can't sabotage anything else."

"That works." Lex smiled. "Don't forget to revoke her access to the security room and everyone needs to know not to mention anything about me being here and alert them to keep an extra eye on her especially in the lab."

They called a meeting and told everyone what was going on. After that Lex was showing Buddy all of his inventions that she had improved and they began to work on a new pair of utility bracers for him. They included all sorts of new things including the zero point energy deflectors and a mini I-bomb. As they worked Buddy kept suggesting different names Lex could use for herself. After much debate they both gave up on the idea. They were almost finished with their work when the intercom on the wall beeped on.

"Syndrome Mirage has just took off and is on her way back you have one hour before she gets here." The goon announced quickly and it clicked off.

"Great figures she'd come back in time to ruin my night" Buddy grumbled and looked sadly to Lex. "Please stay tonight? You can hideout in my room and we can eat dinner on the beach just like we used to. Please?" He clasped his hands together and begged on his knees making Lex laugh.

"Alright." She agreed and he grabbed her and pinned her to the wall kissing her. When he released her she took a moment to recompose herself. "But I'm leaving first thing in the morning before she wakes up." She said and he nodded smiling. "What if she sees my jet in the hangar? She'll know I'm here."

"Don't worry about it she's too stupid to even notice." He said waving his hand in the air and Lex glared at him. "Ok fine I'll have someone move it to the other hangar."

They left the lab and Lex packed a few things and threw them into the jet before one of the goons moved it to the other hangar that no one ever used. Lex dragged Buddy back to the lab with her so they could finish his new bracers before Mirage arrived. Working as best they could they had them finished just as she was ten minutes away. Lex's stomach grumbled as they left the lab.

"I'll meet you in my room I'm just going to talk to the chef about our dinner plans." He winked and she rolled her eyes at him before heading down the corridor to his room. She let her hair down and took off her eye mask and took out her contacts putting her glasses back on. She sat on the bed and waited for him.

Buddy had finished telling the cook what to prepare them for dinner and where to bring it for them and was on his way back to his room. His hand was on the handle to his room and he heard someone behind him. He hesitantly turned around knowing who it was.

"I'm back." Mirage said and took a step closer to him. It took everything he had to remain calm and not strangle her until the life left her eyes. All he could see in his mind was her on the feeds _bribing_ the now deceased goons she was using. He did his best to block out his hatred for her and stared blankly back at her. "Gazerbeam will probably be here in a few days. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him. He"

"Ok I get it, what do you want? I'm tired and I just want to go to bed." He demanded trying his best to keep calm.

"Just wanted to say hi." She sounded offended. "Want to join me in my room?" She asked knowing that he would never let her in his room.

"No. Goodnight." He said and quickly went into his room slamming the door shut. "I'm going to kill her!" He yelled with his hands on either side of his head and looked up to see Lex sitting on the bed trying to contain her laughter. "What's so funny?"

"You I feel so sorry for you, I don't know how I could go a day with her here and not beat the life out of her with an electric rod or something. Good thing I'm leaving in the morning." She laughed.

"How is that funny? I need her to tell me where the rest of the supers are." He said a bit hurt that she'd be laughing at him about it as he took his bracers off.

"I'm sorry, I understand how hard it is for you. I wish there was another way. But you should really start to get on her case about finding Incredible. I honestly think she knows where he is and just isn't telling you." She took him by the hands and sat him on the bed next to her.

"If you're right I'll strangle the life out of her the second I get my hands on her." He threatened and let himself fall back into bed. Letting out a deep sign he let the issue leave his mind and pulled Lex next to him and they cuddled for awhile before he flew them to the beach.

The rest of the night was amazing. The chef had set up a table on the beach for them lit by candles and they ate all kinds of things for dinner from pasta to Sushi and for dessert they had cheesecake smothered in chocolate sauce. When they were finished neither of them wanted to move from where they were and ended up lying on a blanket in the sand staring up at the clear starry sky. They were trying to outdo each other on naming the different stars and constellations. Once they felt like they could move again he flew them back to his room and they slowly undressed each other and fell into bed. They fell asleep clutching onto each other not wanting to let go dreading waking up and having to say goodbye.

When the alarm went off it was still rather dark outside and they both laid there staring at each other not wanting to get up. Buddy finally after a minute or two of listening to the alarm beep released her and hit the alarm off. They both very slowly got dressed. Lex didn't even bother to put up her hair but did put the eye mask on under her glasses making Buddy smile and kiss her on the forehead. She pocketed her new contacts and once they had their gloves, bracers, and boots and shoes on they walked hand in hand to the hangar after making sure Mirage was still asleep.

They were silent the whole walk there even though they both had a million things they wanted to say. Buddy walked her onto the jet.

"I wish you could stay." He finally said breaking the silence.

"I know, but I promise I'll be back." She promised kissing his gloved hand.

"I could go with you." He suggested.

"You'd leave the island when you know a super will be arriving any day and leave Mirage in charge?" She asked raising an eyebrow at him and he frowned.

"Dammit I really don't want you to leave." He pulled her into a hug.

"Buddy I don't want to leave anymore than you want me to but I don't want to risk your chances of Mirage not cooperating for you and further slow your plans than she already has." She kissed him on the forehead and he pinned her to the couch kissing her passionately. She gasped for air when he released her and she just laid there for a moment. "You're lucky I have to leave." She threatened making him smirk. He pulled her to her feet and she began shoving him towards the door.

"Alright, alright I'll let you leave." He said sadly and he stopped in the doorway and they both stood there staring into each other and rested their foreheads together kissing one last time.

"Love you." Lex whispered.

"Love you." He whispered back and slowly made his way down the stairs. Lex hesitantly hit the button on the wall beside the door and the steps retracted back inside and the door air locked itself shut. She took in a deep breath and began her trip back to the secondary base.

Syndrome just wanted to go back to sleep for the rest of the day and not have to deal with Mirage at all. But of course after eating breakfast she wandered into the kitchen just as he was leaving.

"Good morning." She smiled at him.

"Morning." Was his quick reply waving his hand at her as he quickly fled the kitchen and went and locked himself in his lab double checking to make sure he had restricted her access to it. He sat and began sending out emails to his usual vendors with information on some of the inventions that Lex had improved in the hope that they'd respond so he could send Mirage away as soon as he possibly could.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

When Lex arrived back at the second base she was glad to find that most of the furniture and computers had arrived and went to work arranging and installing everything.

A few days went by and her and Syndrome would video chat at night. He had several things lined up to keep Mirage away for awhile and Gazerbeam would be there in a day or so. Avian and Travis returned from their little vacation and saw Lex just as she was ending her conversation with Buddy. They both stood there in complete awe and confusion.

"What-did-I-miss? And where are your glasses and where did you get an eye mask?" Avian was the first to ask as Travis's gaze was locked on her computer screen as she closed it shut.

"Umwell Syndrome gave me my mask, and long story short I went to Nomanisan so I could attempt to recover the lost video feeds and Syndrome caught me there and now we're back together oh and Mirage has been sabotaging the Omni-Droids and is a giant slut." She explained smiling and Travis gave her a hug squeezing her a little too tight. Once he released her Avian looked at her oddly as if he didn't know what to do and gave her a hug.

"Took you idiots long enough." Avian laughed. "And the whole Mirage thing isn't really news to us, we kind of figured."

"So if you two are back together why are you here?" Travis asked.

"The only reason I went over there in the first place was because she was gone and I knew I wouldn't be able to not kill her if I ran into her, plus Syndrome still needs her to find Incredible so we don't want her to know about us." She explained.

"Let's just hope it doesn't take long for her to cooperate." Travis said and Avian nodded.

"Please tell me he plans on killing her once he has Incredible." Avian whined.

"I'm pretty sure. Surprised he hasn't killed her yet. No one is happy with her especially after what happened" Lex trailed off before they both questioned her about it and she explained how they rounded up everyone that helped Mirage and let her and Syndrome kill them. After she finished explaining all the extra measures they were talking to keep an eye on Mirage they both gave her gifts that they got her on their vacation. After they all ate dinner together they went to sleep after much debating on coming up with a name for the island coming up with nothing good.

~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~KRONOS~

Syndrome couldn't be any happier. Mirage had left early that morning to do business offerings on a few of his inventions and contact the next super on his list and the day before that Gazerbeam was killed by the Omni-Droid. He had just rolled out of bed and was about to call Lex when the intercom on the wall beeped.

"Sir I really hate to disturb you but you need to come to the security room immediately." Head of security said sounding rather scared.

"Ok I'll be there as soon as I can." He replied and the intercom shut off. He grumbled as he got dressed and after doing his hair he made his way to the security room. "Ok what happened? Did Mirage do something?"

"No it's much worse than that" He pulled up a feed and it showed Gazerbeam practically dragging himself through the base then the camera was shot down by his eye lasers. "He got all the way to your main computer but I'm not sure if he got into anything I need your clearance to check the feeds" He said scooting aside from the keyboard.

Syndrome was furious. How could he have survived all of that and still manage to sneak back into the main part of the base? He pulled a small key out of his bracer and turned it in the console and began watching the feeds only to discover that Gazerbeam had seen his whole plan then snuck back out.

"I want you to get as many of you out there as you can on vipers and velocipods and search the island for him." He commanded and security nodded and took off down the corridor. He sat in a nearby chair and rubbed his temples as he tried to not think of all the horrible things that might happen if Gazerbeam had survived long enough to get out of there and tell someone about his base and his plans. He was brought out of his trance when a pair of hands rested on his shoulders and turned around to see Lex standing behind him.

"Lex? When did you get here? I didn't even get to call you yet." He was confused and she smiled and placed a kiss on his nose.

"Security called me the second Mirage left this morning so I decided to surprise you. Oh and they told me about what happened with Gazerbeam on my way over here I'm sure he's dead" She tried her best to reassure him.

"But what if he's not? What if he got away and he's off telling the NSA about me? What am I going to do?" He was beginning to panic.

"What are talking about? Hello? Remember you have me and a whole 'nother base that no one knows about. Say the word and I'll automatically transfer everything over there and take care of everything else." She said tilting his head up towards her kissing him lightly on the lips making him smile.

"I love you." He said happily pulling her into his lap.

"I love you too, but you need to remember that I am here and I will _always_ take care of you no matter _what_ the cost." She reassured him and he pulled her into a kiss making them both lean too far back in the chair resulting in the chair falling backwards making them spill onto the floor laughing.


	10. The Worst Kind of Sabotage

Lex did her best to distract Syndrome from worrying about Gazerbeam. Once a week went by he had forgotten all about it. They spent almost every second together. They worked on inventions and had fun testing them out. Mirage had called the day before saying she had contacted the next super and that they'd be there in a day or so.

"Do you want me to come back?" Mirage asked over the phone.

"No, I can handle a super all by myself." Syndrome said annoyed. "Besides you still have to meet with several of my business partners. Bomb Voyage might even be interested. You could spend a few weeks in France if you like." He suggested hoping she'd agree to it. Lex sat next to him crossing her fingers she'd say yes.

"I'd love that, I've always wanted to go are you sure it's ok?" She sounded excited.

"So long as you keep sending supers my way speaking of which have you found Incredible yet?" He asked and the line went silent. "Hello?"

"No it's hard to get anything on him. I can't even get his real name. I'm sorry. I'm trying as hard as I can." She explained sounding a bit scared.

"Well try harder!" He demanded and hung up on her. Lex wrapped her arms around him and placed a kiss on his cheek. Travis and Avian were on their way over. Syndrome wanted them there when the next super arrived just in case anything happened again.

"Lex we finally came up with a name for the new island!" Avian said happily throwing his hands about. "Kamalu Island." He smiled waiting for their responses.

"Works for me I'm horrible at coming up with names for things." She shrugged and he looked to Syndrome.

"That's Hawaiian isn't it?" Syndrome asked and Avian nodded as Travis rolled his eyes obviously annoyed by his over enthusiasm.

"It means something along the lines of secret evil. I don't know exactly but I like it. So have I missed anything fun?" He began his onslaught of questions. After finally getting rid of Avian and Travis had retired to bed Buddy and Lex went to the beach to enjoy themselves.

When the next super, Stormicide, arrived the next day Lex had greeted her and sent her off to battle the Omni-Droid that she sadly only lasted an hour against.

"Well that was kind of disappointing." Syndrome sighed as he watched the Omni-Droid dispatch of her body into a pool of lava.

"Maybe the next super will be better." Lex smiled at him.

"You know you didn't have to watch if you didn't want to." He offered remembering her whole problem with him killing supers was what tore them apart in the first place.

"No I'm fine. After what you had done with Mirage I understood what it was like to want revenge" She explained and it made his heart sink. "Not that I wanted revenge on you, I just wanted to make _her_ suffer until she begged me to kill her" She said looking away from him.

"I'm so sorry about all of that" He apologized. He never did forgive himself for hurting Lex like he did with Mirage. "You can torture her all you want once she gives me Incredible, I promise." Lex rolled her eyes at him and put her hands on either side of his face.

"You need to stop apologizing. It's ok. I'm here with you now and that's all that matters." She kissed him and he wrapped his arms around her not wanting to let go. Lex pried him off of her and she looked back at him deviously. He then picked her up in his arms and carried her bridal style to his room from the main computer room. Lex giggled as he became impatient waiting for the walls of lava to open for him.

He threw her into his bed and she laid on her side in a pose giggling as he attempted to strip out of his suit as fast as he could. Once he had his boots, gloves, and bracers off he looked up to see she had already stripped completely out of her clothes.

"That's it you're making me a new suit that's easier to take off." He grumbled as he peeled out of his super suit.

"Tomorrow but until then" She smiled and he smiled back crawling on top of her pinning her down to the bed.

The next day Lex spent most of most of her time designing his new suit and something for her to wear under her clothes. Syndrome and Avian were busy running tests on the Omni-Droid.

"Having fun?" Travis asked peeking over her shoulder.

"Nothing too exciting. I figured I'd just send the design off to the expert this time and let her make it along with mine. That fabric is a pain in the ass to work with. Basically mine is going to be like under armor to wear under my clothes so Syndrome won't worry about me." She explained rolling her eyes.

"He's just worried about you. You never know Mirage might actually try to kill you or something if she finds out that you're both together again." Travis laughed.

"I'd love to see that, I don't even think she'd know what to do." She said trying to imagine her even attempting to hurt her. After attaching an email to her designs she sent them off to Edna Mode, the designer that originally designed most of the original super suits. She then made her way to the testing area for the Omni-Droid to help Syndrome and Avian. When she got there Syndrome had just hung up the phone with Mirage.

"I think she's starting to notice I'm purposely keeping her away." He said looking a bit worried. "But she said the next super should be here in a few days and that she'll be staying in France for awhile. At least there's that. But she didn't sound too happy."

"She's probably just annoyed that she had to deal with Bomb Voyage for so long and she doesn't know any French." Lex shrugged and Buddy agreed and they continued their tests on the Omni-Droid.

The next couple of days everyone relaxed enjoying themselves. Lex and Buddy spent the day on the beach and Avian and Travis were off having races in velicopods and vipers with some of the other goons. The next super came and lasted longer than four hours against the Omni-Droid before getting their leg and arm blasted off and getting thrown into a pool of lava.

Syndrome was getting sick and tired of this and decided to get the stronger supers ranking just below Incredible to face his Omni-Droid. A few days later Gamma Jack arrived at the island and after a few hours defeated the Omni-Droid. Lex showed him to a room for him to stay in and bid him goodnight before meeting Syndrome at his main computer room confined behind the lava walls.

They spent most of the night re-programming the obstacle course and briefing the goons about the super. Syndrome wanted to study his strengths and weaknesses in order to make the next Omni-Droid the one worthy to beat Gamma Jack and possibly even Incredible. After a few days of observing the super they sent him back home so they could begin work on the next Omni-Droid.

Lex sat inside the frame work of the next Omni-Droid with her welder's goggles on welding the large plates of armor onto it with Travis's help while Avian and Syndrome worked on the power core and artificial intelligence. A goon ran in Lex's direction looking rather annoyed and he waited patiently for her to stop welding.

She stopped welding and lifted her goggles to look at him. "Yes?"

"I'm soo sorry Lex, Mirage must have deactivated her tracking device on her jet she's only minutes away" He looked down at the floor like a small child who had done something wrong.

"What?" Syndrome yelled from across the lab and briskly walked up to him and Lex grabbed him by the arm stopping him from punching the poor goon.

"Syndrome its ok. It's not his fault. I'll just go in my room for now. It's not like she has access to any of the security feeds anyways so she'll never know I was here." She explained but Syndrome refused to calm down. He was so afraid of Mirage finding out about him and Lex and losing his chance to find Incredible.

"Alright fine." He said and kissed Lex on the forehead and shooed her and Travis and turned to the computer on the wall and grabbed the microphone making sure the speakers were on throughout the entire base. "Attention Everyone Mirage will be here in a matter if minutes. If you value your life you won't mention Lex ever being here." He boomed over head making Lex roll her eyes as her and Travis made their way to her room.

"He's soo paranoid" Lex sighed.

"Well can you blame him? He's wanted revenge on Incredible forever" Travis said as they entered her room.

"I know it's just hard for me. The one person he needs to find Incredible is the one person I'd love to just strangle the life out of." She huffed slumping down on her bed noticing two packages sitting on her couch. "Oh I had almost forgotten about these." She opened them. They were her under armor and Syndrome's new suit she put his suit back in his box. "I'll be right back." She said heading to her door with the box.

"Where are you going? Mirage will be landing soon!" Travis started after her.

"I'll be right back! Geeze it'll only take a few minutes." She said annoyed and disappeared out the door. No one was to be seen in the corridor on her way to his room. Everyone must have been keeping themselves busy so they wouldn't have to deal with Mirage, and she didn't blame them. She set the box on Buddy's pillow and made her way back to her room and ran into a goon on the way.

"Sorry." Lex apologized.

"It's quite alright. I'm terribly sorry that Mirage decided to come back unannounced. I hate when she's here Syndrome gets too" He trailed off trying to come up with the right word.

"Evil." Lex said for him.

"Well yes to put it bluntly. You help him with his plan but he always gets so angry when _she's_ around I hope she gets sent away again soon" He smiled and she smiled back at him and they continued on their way. It was comforting to know that even the goons were on her side. When she returned to her room Travis had her laptop open on the coffee table as he watched the feeds of Mirage leaving her Jet and she joined him. As she sat down she noticed he was holding a small remote control.

"What is that for?" She asked.

"Oh you'll see." He laughed and turned his attention back to the computer screen.

Syndrome decided to stay in the lab and pretend he didn't know she was arriving keeping himself locked in his work along with Avian who kept wishing that her jet would somehow malfunction and send her crashing into the ocean never to be heard from again. He laughed to himself out loud as he imagined it in his head making Syndrome turn to him looking rather confused.

"Sorry I was imagining her dying in a crash" He giggled as he continued his work.

"You're not very helpful" Syndrome said dryly wishing that it really was that easy. Just send her away with a bomb on her Jet and duplicate her laptop so he could steal any useful files she had. It was extremely tempting. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the airlock door open to reveal Mirage. She was wearing something extremely skimpy and it made him want to open the window closest to him that faced one of the lava pools and throw her out of it with his zero point energy. He flexed his hands and did his best to collect himself and turned to face her.

"You're back. I wasn't alerted. Is there something wrong with the jets homing device?" He asked knowing she had most likely purposely deactivated it so she could surprise him and see what he was up to while she was gone.

"I'm not sure. You should take a break from the lab I brought you some things." She winked and Avian had to fight himself not to make a loud gagging noise at her little innuendo. Syndrome reluctantly followed her out the lab and down the corridor. He then soon realized that she was leading him to her room. He had to think fast if he wanted to get out of it. She had her hand on the handle to her door and he couldn't think of anything that didn't sound completely fake. She was just about to open the door to her room when something rolled past them and quickly disappeared down the corridor.

"What in the" He stared after it thanking whatever the hell it was for saving him for the moment. "I'll be right back." He said and ignoring Mirage's protesting he went after it with his rocket boots. Whatever it was it sure could move fast. Turning the corner he saw a mini Omni-Droid staring at him in the middle of the hallway. It retracted its legs and rolled further down the hall and the doors to the lab opened and it rolled in. Entering the lab he found it standing beside Avian who was laughing maniacally with Travis standing beside him. Syndrome stood there looking rather perplexed at the two.

"I believe the words you're looking for are, thank you for saving me from that evil she devil." Avian smiled and patted the little Omni-Droid on its head and Travis holding the remote hit a button and it waved one of its arms at Syndrome. He sighed realizing that they really did just save him in a way and he smiled at them.

"Thank you when did you make him?" He asked pointing to the mini droid.

"Well I was really bored one day and I had always wanted a pet to play with and I thought a mini Omni-Droid would be soo cute." He smiled. "He's still remote controlled, I haven't had time to work on his artificial intelligence yet." He explained looking rather proud.

"Interesting I never thought of making one so small May I?" He asked and Travis handed him the remote control. The next half hour the three of them were playing with the mini Omni-Droid having it clean up the lab for them and taking turns controlling him. Lex came into the lab rolling her eyes.

"Are you boys going to play with your new toy all day or are we going to get back to work?" She asked placing her welding goggles on her head.

"Lex what're you doing what if she sees you?" Syndrome was suddenly in a panic making Lex give an annoyed huff. She rushed over to him and slammed him into the computer console and kissed him making Avian and Travis go wide eyed and they began to make their way to the door. "Its fine she's in her room all pouty because you got distracted and is busy unpacking. I'm fine. Everyone is keeping a close eye on her and will warn me if she's coming." She reassured him and he shook his head to clear it from their kiss. "You worry too much."

"I know I can't help it." He rubbed the back of his neck. Lex noticed Avian and Travis inching their way towards the door.

"Where do you think you two are going?" She asked.

"Um We got scared. I thought you two were going to" Avian trailed off not wanting to finish the sentence.

"Oh come on you really think we'd do that in here?" Lex raised an eyebrow at them.

"I don't know you two are crazy!" He threw his hands up in the air and Syndrome looked at him in disbelief.

"You're the crazy one." Syndrome laughed making everyone else laugh in agreement. They called some of the goons back into the lab and they continued their work. Almost the entire round body of the Omni-Droid was done in a few hours. Luckily they were able to salvage most of the arms from the previous one making it easier to focus on other things. It was getting late when one of the goons announced that Mirage was now in the kitchen and wanted Syndrome to meet her there. He sighed and attempted to think up an excuse not to go.

"Oh just go or else she'll know you're trying to avoid her. It'll be fine. Just don't let her take you back to her room." Lex said and he slumped his shoulders.

"I know alright I'll go. You all can be done for the night if you like. I'll try not to take too long. See you later in my room?" He asked placing a gloved hand on her cheek. She nodded and kissed him before shooing him out of the lab. Once he was gone head of security pulled up the feeds in the kitchen on the main screen so everyone could see what was happening.

"I kinda feel like this is wrong spying on them all the time, but I really don't care I don't trust her one bit." Head of security said enabling the audio. Mirage was now in a normal long sleeved shirt and pajama pants which everyone was thankful for.

Syndrome made his way to the kitchen as slowly as he could dreading talking to her. When he entered she smiled at him as she ate a box of fancy chocolates she had obviously gotten from France.

"So I heard that Gamma Jack actually destroyed the last Omni-Droid?" She asked.

"Yeah he'll be back in a few days for another training session. So have you found anything on Incredible yet? After I get rid of this Super I want him and only him. So you better find him soon." He demanded as he eyed some of her chocolates.

"I know I've been trying. I've been working on getting a full list of the supers secret identities so all we will have to do is search them all out to find which one is him. It's not easy" She explained sounding a bit afraid of him knowing how sensitive he was on the subject. "And I've been wondering, why can't I access any of the security feeds anymore?"

"Because with so many supers being here lately I don't want to risk anything. The only people who can access them now are me, head of security, Travis, and" He contemplated saying her name for a moment but quickly decided the sooner she knows that Lex is still helping him the better. "Lex."

"Lex? Why her? I thought you two weren't even talking? She's been gone for over two years!" Mirage said angrily.

"Because she's been helping me build the new Omni-Droid. We both still have issues but this is too important for her to just walk away from the whole thing and I really need her help on this." He explained and she furrowed her brow at him.

"So she's been here this whole time I was away?" She asked a bit deviously.

Lex and the others sat staring at the screen listening to Syndrome try and explain why Lex was there and so on. It really was starting to bother her how far he was going to protect what he had with her. She knew it was because he needed her to find Incredible, but it was just so difficult to even see them together in the same room. She took in a deep breath to calm herself. After a few moments though she realized just what Mirage was eating. A box of chocolates from her trip. Outside food yet again she stood and every one's eyes shifted to her and Travis and Avian both grabbed her by the arms and pulled her back and sat her down she huffed and sat with her arms crossed staring at the large screen in front of her.

Syndrome couldn't stop eyeing her chocolates they looked and smelled so delicious, Mirage noticed and held the box out to him smiling. "You want one?"

"What kind are they?" He asked suspiciously.

"There's all different kinds mostly truffles though." She said stuffing another one in her mouth. He checked the lid of the box and noticed that there were several strawberry ones. He knew if Lex noticed that she would be furious and he looked up at Mirage. "I already ate all the strawberry ones if that's what you're worried about."

"Thanks. You're lucky Lex is busy working in the lab or else she'd kill you." He laughed and Mirage didn't so much as smile at his little joke. He finally decided and chose a simple cherry filled one. He bit into it and it was delicious. He then grabbed another and another and swallowed them down realizing how hungry he was. "Maybe just two more" He said childlike and stared at the selection she held in front of him indecisively.

"Here try these two. They're my _favorite_ so far." She handed them to him and he ate them quickly and attempted to thank her with a full mouth and as he swallowed he quickly realized what he tasted.

"Those were..." His eyes went wide and he could feel his throat begin to close up and his tongue begin to swell. Mirage turned and calmly walked out of the kitchen mumbling under her breath not even looking back as she closed the door behind her.

Lex was in a panic and she ran as fast as she could from the lab to the kitchen. She saw Mirage walking her way and her eyes looked like they were going to pop out of her head the second she saw her. Lex didn't even stop her fast pace and punched Mirage in the face as hard as she could making a satisfying crack from the impact. She then swept Mirage's feet out from under her and slammed the back of her head into the hard floor making a loud thud. Lex didn't slow her pace and continued on her way leaving Mirage unconscious in the middle of the corridor. The others following behind her watched in fear as she took Mirage down. They all walked past her as if she wasn't there leaving her alone and bleeding.

Lex had the needle ready when she entered the kitchen and stabbed it into Syndrome's neck as he lay on the floor struggling to breathe. Once she injected the adrenaline into him his eyes went wide and he sucked in a breath. Travis and Avian ran into the kitchen after them with a few goons following behind them.

Buddy was focusing on breathing as the adrenaline coursed though him. He couldn't process what had just happened. He could hear Lex talking to him and the next thing he knew he was in his room with her undressing him and putting an IV in his arm.

"Buddy buddy can you hear me?" She asked looking frightened above him as she readied another needle and he nodded before she could stick him again and she let out a breath of relief. "You scared me for a minute there." She admitted stroking his face as she set the syringe on the nightstand. "Thought I was going to have to stick you in the chest like last time."

"Is it just me or does it seem like whenever this happens it's my sweet tooth that gets me in these situations?" He asked wearily recalling all the times that this had happened.

"No you're right it's always been chocolates and candy that get you and I remember once strawberry syrup." She smiled down at him and he looked down at his IV she had put in his forearm and groaned.

"Do I really need an IV?" He whined.

"Yes, I don't want you to get dehydrated from the epinephrine." She explained and he pouted for a moment before his face went stern.

"Mirage I can't believe she did this she did it on purpose too. Now after the fact I can tell that she was debating it our whole conversation until I mentioned you and pressed the subject of her finding Incredible. I even heard her as she left she mumbled to herself. _Serves you right_. I swear the next time I see her I'm gonna

Lex put her hand on his shoulder pushing him back down onto the bed.

"I'm sure she'll leave you alone I'm pretty sure I broke her nose and possibly a cracked her skull or gave her concussion" She smiled evilly. "She's being carried off to the medical wing now I believe." Syndrome looked to her with a smile and squeezed her hand.

"I love you you had time to beat the hell out of her and still get to me within minutes I don't know what I'd ever do without you." He explained lovingly and pulled her into a kiss.

"Love you too. So what are we going to do about Mirage?" She asked.

"I don't know but whatever we do we need a way to keep her out of the main lab. I can't risk her sabotaging anything else." He explained before yawning.

"That won't be too hard. I'll just have to activate the card reader on the lab doors and revoke her access to it along with the main computer just in case. Then I'll just have to reactivate every ones cards." She explained while Buddy looked at her longingly. "So you take a nap and I'll take care of it." She kissed him on the forehead and stood to head for the door.

"But I'm not tired you know I hate being stuck in bed especially without you" He pleaded.

"Buddy Pine less than an hour ago you were in anaphylactic shock, you need to rest." She said firmly and he crossed his arms across his bare chest in defiance.

"Fine Dr. Prithor." He pouted and stuck his tongue out at her making her raise an eyebrow at him.

"Real mature Buddy." She rolled her eyes and attempted to grab his tongue but he slipped it back into his mouth before she could. He smiled childishly up at her and she kissed him on the tip of his nose. "Now you stay in bed or else I'll have to knock you out." She threatened playfully.

"You wouldn't." He dared her.

"If it was for your own good yes I would." She said sternly and he knew she wasn't joking.

"Ok, ok. I'll stay in bed." He said knowing her patience was wearing thin.

"Thank you." She smiled kissing him one last time before leaving the room. Buddy sat in bed not knowing what to do with himself. He finally decided to do something he hadn't done in years, watch a movie.

Lex had found out that she did indeed break Mirage's nose and fractured the back of her skull. She'd be stuck in the medical wing for a week or two to recover. After the annoying process of scanning everyone's clearance cards and fixing all the security access she returned to Syndrome's room to find him watching the movie Fantastic Four.

"Now I remember why I stopped watching cartoons and movies" Syndrome began sounding rather annoyed. "Because no matter how amazing the villain's plan is they always lose or turn good in the end." He clicked the movie off and stared angrily at the blank screen.

"Well that's not going to happen to you. If you've noticed almost all villains don't have an amazingly caring and smart girl at their side to make sure their plan goes through no matter what." Lex said sitting next to him putting a hand on his shoulder and looking into his deep blue eyes. His face softened and he smiled at her.

"I'm keeping you forever" He said kissing her gently on the lips. "Now can you take this annoying thing out?" He smiled sweetly holding his arm out to her. Lex rolled her eyes at him and took his IV out and disposed of it and the empty saline bag. She undressed and crawled into bed with him and they fell asleep rather quickly exhausted from the day.

The next day Lex revealed his new suit to him and he even stripped for her with it a few times to make sure it was up to his standards. He was extremely happy to learn that she had her own protective wear now as well. Of course not only did she make his new suit easier to get out of, but it was also a lot more damage resistant than his other suit. Two new things about his suit that she decided to keep to herself were the homing device along with making it so his cape would detach if it were pulled on or caught on something, an extra feature courtesy of Edna Mode since she was so incredibly anti-capes and Lex had put into the notes that it had to have a cape or else he wouldn't wear it. If only the lady had known just who she was making it for she might not have done it, but she seemed so eager to make a _super_ suit Lex didn't want to ruin her fun of making the thing she longed to make for the past fifteen years.

The next week everyone was dedicated to finishing the Omni-Droid and testing Gamma Jack. Things were moving quite nicely and everyone seemed to be in a rather good mood since Mirage was still stuck in the medical wing. They had the Omni-Droid 9.0 finished and were on their third day of testing when Mirage was let out of the medical wing. She had a large bandage around her head and strips over her nose. Luckily for the first week she was out she stayed mostly confined to her room. Syndrome had yet to confront her about what had happened and had decided that he wouldn't until she talked to him first.

It was in the afternoon and Syndrome, Lex, and Avian had just finished testing the Omni-Droids artificial intelligence with simple exercises in the obstacle course when Mirage hesitantly approached the three of them.


	11. Search Is Over

"What do _you_ want?" Lex demanded stepping in front of Syndrome protectively and he instinctively wrapped his fingers around her wrist to hold her back just in case she decided to attack her.

"I need to talk to Syndrome, _alone_." She replied glaring back at her eyeing his hand around Lex's wrist angrily.

"Whatever you have to say to me you can say it in front of all of us." He said firmly stepping forward still not releasing Lex.

"I don't feel the need to be part of _us_ today" Avian said looking around nervously. "Flee!" He yelled before quickly running off down the corridor and disappearing around the corner. Lex and Syndrome didn't even take their eyes off of Mirage as Avian made his quick exit being so used to his odd behavior.

"Can I please just talk to you in private?" Mirage asked looking rather annoyed.

"You really think I'd go anywhere alone with _you_ after what you did? How stupid do you think I am? I can't trust you, _no one_ here trusts you anymore." He said cruelly. She stared back at him in shock unable to find anything to say. Lex balled and un-balled her gloved hands into fists at her sides attempting to stay calm making Syndrome tighten his fingers around her wrist. "I know what you've been up to, sabotage and sleazing around to cover up your tracks, you..."

"I would never do anythi..." She attempted to deny his accusations but Lex had trapped her in zero point energy cutting her off.

"Shut up you filthy little liar! We know it was you. I recoded all the deleted video files and restored them so don't even try to deny it." Lex explained angrily holding her in place. Syndrome finally released her wrist and began pacing around Mirage's frozen form as her eyes followed him.

"If it wasn't for Lex I never would have known. That's why she's here. I can trust her with everything including my own life. Did you ever notice that everyone who helped you is no longer here?" He continued to pace around her with a devious look on his face. "They're dead. Just like you _should_ be. The only reason you're still alive is because you're still useful. If you cooperate with no further attempts to slow my plans then I will _try_ to keep Lex from killing you once my plan is carried out." He promised and Lex looked to him and he nodded and she released Mirage who fell to the floor on her hands and knees and quickly got to her feet. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes" She looked away from him and down to the floor.

"And just in case you're too stupid to realize this, we're over, we were never even together come to think of it." He put his index finger to his cheek looking up thoughtfully as his expression went from boyishly observant to deviously evil. "I was merely using you to convince myself that I was still angry with Lex. But it never worked not even in the slightest" He laughed maniacally and turned to her. "Did I miss anything? Anything else you wanted to talk about?" He asked leaning towards her with his hands clasped behind his back.

Lex watched completely astonished at how dark he was being towards her. She did hate Mirage and wanted her dead more than anyone there, but she was never one to humiliate someone no matter how much they deserved it. Never had she seen him act so incredibly _evil_ , perhaps only one other time, but it was very brief, the night of their senior prom.

**It was only a week away from senior prom. Lex was seventeen and Buddy was sixteen. They would always get together after school and finish their homework sometimes making it a contest on who could get theirs done the fastest since they had all the same classes together courtesy of Buddy. Once they had their homework done they'd usually work on his current invention or come up with ideas for his revenge.**

**Lex and him weren't ones to do normal high school things such as sports, dances, and school clubs, but Lex was determined to go to senior prom so she could at least say she did something in high school besides scheme and work on inventions. She dropped Buddy a million hints that she wanted to go mentioning it whenever she could. It was two days before the prom and one of the more popular boys, Jareth, asked her to the prom. She actually said yes finally giving up on the idea that Buddy was going to ask her since the day before he barely acknowledged her when she modeled her dress for him.**

**Buddy merely shrugged when she had told him who was taking her and continued to work on his designs for a new invention. She had made plans to meet up with Jareth and his friends before prom for dinner. It was the night of the prom and just as she was getting ready to leave Jareth had surprised her and picked her up at her parents' house. Luckily for her, her parents were both at work making her able to avoid the embarrassing questions from them.**

**He opened the door to his truck to reveal a brunette in a glittery dress sitting there laughing hysterically. It was Sarah his supposed ex-girlfriend. It was all a set up. Lex was so upset she ran inside crying.**

**"Haha you really think anyone would want to take your nerdy ass to prom? Not even your weirdo best friend Pine will take you!" Jareth laughed before driving off. Lex grabbed her scooter and rode it to Buddy's house still in her dress with her hair up and makeup running with her tears. By the time she got to his house she was no longer sad but angry and had convinced herself that she didn't need to go to a stupid prom anyways.**

**When Buddy answered the door he was didn't seem at all surprised to see her in the state she was in. "He set you up didn't he?" He asked and all she could do was nod angrily. "I had a feeling he would."**

**"Then why didn't you warn me?" She yelled following him upstairs to his room while taking her annoying heels off.**

**"Because I was hoping I was wrong so you could go to prom and enjoy yourself! You've been going on about it for the past month, but I was wrong. I'm sorry" He explained as they stopped outside his bedroom door. "Um you can't come in my room."**

**"What? Why not?" She demanded.**

**"I'll show you in a minute. But first go wash off that hideous makeup." He said making a face at her Lex glared at him for a moment before disappearing into the bathroom. She mumbled angrily to herself as she washed off her makeup. It had only run a little bit but it didn't look bad. At least she didn't think so.**

**"Stupid Buddy doesn't know what he's talking about. The one time I wear makeup he says I look hideous." She huffed at herself in the mirror as she dried her face. After re-evaluating herself in the mirror she knocked on his door.**

**"Give me a minute!" He yelled through the door. Lex put her ear to the door to try and figure out what he was doing in there with no luck. She stood impatiently outside his door and five minutes later he finally responded. "Ok I'm going to unlock the door and let you in but you have to promise to close your eyes and not peek until I tell you to." He instructed.**

**"Ok closing my eyes now." Lex did as he requested completely confused as to what he would be up to. She heard his door unlock and open and was surprised when his warm hands led her into his room by her shoulders and sat her down on his bed. So many things were going through her mind of what he was going to unveil to her but she was definitely not expecting what he had in store for her.**

**"Alright now you can open your eyes." He said and she set her eyes upon Buddy in a blue tux that matched her blue dress with his usually messy hair spiked up. She was so surprised by seeing him dressed for prom that she didn't even notice the box that he held out to her. "Here." He put the rectangular box in her hands. "This is for you." She looked down at it and shook herself to make sure she was seeing things correctly then opened the box to reveal two metal chopsticks. "I know it's not a corsage but it's perfect for you." He took them out of the box and placed them in her hair. "I'll show you how they work later." He said deviously and she looked up at him in a daze.**

**"I'm confused." She admitted eyeing him up and down in his tux.**

**"Well I knew you really wanted to go to prom, I was going to surprise you. But then Jareth asked you. Before I heard that it might be a set up I was already planning on showing up at your house and surprise you." He laughed. "I figured if you were going to go you had to go with me I mean why go with some random asshat you barely know?" He smiled and Lex looked to him in complete shock. He had actually gone out of his way to make sure she would go to the prom no matter what. She didn't know what to say.**

**"When did you..." She began then trailed off taking in how good he looked and he smiled at her and locked her in his blazing blue eyes.**

**"So, how do you want to get there? I can drive us or fly us." He smiled deviously eyeing his newly enhanced rocket boots sitting under his computer desk. All she did was stare back into his eyes unable to process much. She finally shook herself and took in everything he said.**

**"Fly, who in the hell drives anymore?" She laughed nervously knowing that meant she'd be extremely close to him the whole way there and back. He grabbed a few things before they left and gave Lex a trench coat to wear so she wouldn't freeze to death.**

**Prom was being held only a few blocks away from his house. It only took ten minutes to get there but it was the longest ten minutes they ever shared together. He held her tightly to his chest and locked her feet onto the top of his boots admitting that he had added that feature just for her making her blush. They were both silent the whole way there enjoying just being close to each other for the first time since before Incredible was so horrible to Buddy.**

**The rest of the evening was unreal. Buddy and Lex danced and snacked on the food. Lex had to stop him from spiking the punch with a drug that would make everyone fall asleep. They had fun making fun of people's awful dress and tux choices. The two were even surprised when a few people actually said hi to them and complemented how well they matched. It was almost the end of the night and Lex and Buddy had been avoiding dancing to any slow songs together. Then the DJ announced that it was the last slow song of the night and they stared at each other contemplating until Buddy stood and bowed to her offering his hand and she hesitantly took it.**

**The song 'Is This Love' by White Snake began to play. He lead her onto the dance floor and he wrapped his arms around her waist and she wrapped hers around his neck and since she had abandoned her shoes early in the night she stood on top of his boots almost making them eye level. Their hearts were racing the whole time as they seemed to get closer and closer to one another until their lips were only an inch from each other's. They were both trembling lightly afraid to move any closer as they eyed each other's lips longing to kiss. The song finally ended and transitioned into a loud base filled techno song but they still stood there afraid to lose what they had.**

**Buddy began to lean in making Lex close her eyes when suddenly a loud obnoxious voice interrupted them. "Hey the super dweebs made it after all!" Jareth laughed with his friends only a few feet away from them. Lex and Buddy both released each other at the same time and glared at him. Buddy looked around to make sure there were no teachers nearby and with a gloved hand pulled one of the chopsticks out of Lex's hair.**

**"Wanna know how these work?" He smiled and she slowly nodded a bit worried as to what they did exactly. "Don't worry it won't kill him." He whispered into her ear before heading towards Jareth. He took a step back when he saw Buddy coming at him.**

**"What do you think you're going to do huh King Nerd?" Jareth taunted as Buddy hit the chopstick on a nearby chair. Lex could hear a small whirring coming from it now and her eyes went wide realizing that he was going to use it on Jareth.**

**"I may be what you call king of the nerds, but you are king of the imbeciles. How could you waste your night with a girl who probably has less than half the amount of brain cells than you over someone amazing like her?" He said motioning to Lex making her blush despite the fact Buddy may very well end up killing or hospitalizing him. She had never seen him so angry and defensive before.**

**"She looked better before she took her makeup off." He shrugged and looked to the chopstick in his hand. "What are you going to stab me or something?"**

**"No but I will gladly knock your idiot ass out." He said darkly and Jareth looked him up and down.**

**"Oh please you probably don't even" Jareth never got to finish his sentence as Buddy simply touched the chopstick to the side of his neck and he convulsed for a few seconds before falling to the ground unconscious. His friends ran off afraid and hit the chopstick on the chair again and placed it back in Lex's hair as she stared wide eyed at the unconscious Jareth on the floor.**

**"You just" She said still unable to take her eyes off of Jareth.**

**"Come on let's go get us some dinner." Buddy said taking her by the hand and she let him lead her out of the prom and he flew them to a nice restaurant. They ate and talked about his new ideas for his ultimate plans for Incredible and afterwards he flew them back to his house. They sat together on his bed and Lex fell asleep during a movie he had put on. When she woke up the next morning she was still in his bed but he was already awake and working on one of his inventions. That was the last time they were ever close until they came to Nomanisan. After prom he seemed to distance himself from her and started to change his personality until he named himself Syndrome.**

"I plan on taking the list of names I have of the supers secret identities and finding each of them. I can't just look them up someone will notice eventually." Mirage explained struggling to keep back her tears.

"That's fine" Syndrome said. "But don't come back until you find Incredible." He said threateningly and she nodded before quickly running off. "At least that'll keep her away from here for awhile." He said turning to Lex his facial expression quickly changing back to his boyish grin.

"Good." Lex smiled up at him glad Mirage wouldn't be there to provoke his bad side any more than she already had. The two of them walked hand in hand to the break room together to get some lunch.

A month had gone by and Mirage would report in every days and send them the location and name of each super she found. Syndrome wanted her to send him more supers to test the Omni-Droid on but the supers she was finding wouldn't have lasted long against it and he waited until she found more powerful supers.

A few months went by and a few supers had faced the Omni-Droid not lasting very long. Lex had the feeling he was starting to have supers come just so he could watch them get destroyed by the Omni-Droid. She did her best to ignore it and kept telling herself it was because he didn't want any supers left to ruin his plans once they set in motion.

Lex, Avian, and Travis were working on a new containment unit for the next month of so that Syndrome wanted in case he needed to hold Incredible there. Metal balls would go over your hands and feet and you would be held in place by the high voltage and static electricity. It had a dial to enforce large amounts of electricity into whoever the prisoner was. It also would close up and leave the prisoner suspended face down for when there was no one to stand guard or to put them into solitary confinement.

It was morning and Buddy opened his eyes to find Lex still asleep next to him and quickly reached over her to turn the alarm clock off before it buzzed and pulled her closer to him. She barely stirred and snuggled into his chest. He decided that they would have the day off and spend time together outside of the lab. Lex stirred after a few moments and looked at him with one eye open.

"Go back to sleep." He whispered resting his head on the pillow next to her. She closed her eye and smiled kissing him on the lips then snuggled up closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her and they both drifted back to sleep. They woke up a few hours later.

"Hey how did we sleep in so late?" Lex asked quickly getting out of bed.

"I turned the alarm off." He said grabbing her by the arm as she rushed to the closet for clothes.

"Why?" She looked at him suspiciously. Buddy laughed at her suspicion and threw her onto the bed and crawled on top of her.

"I decided we both need a day off." He smiled down at her making her grin back and pull him into a kiss.

The two of them spent the day on the beach. Avian and Travis joined them after awhile. Lex was chasing Buddy around trying to get him to take his eye mask off around Avian and Travis. They all had a sand castle building contest and Avian won. Everyone was enjoying themselves and they all had dinner together each of them in charge of cooking a different part of their meal. Buddy wished that they could have more days like this, it made him remember that his final plan, if it worked the way he was hoping that it would be hard to do these kinds of things.

He still hadn't told Lex on what he had planned after Incredible was out of the picture and didn't know how to tell her. As they made their way to his room for the night he tried to come up with the words to tell her. Before they made it to his room head of security came running up to him.

"Sir, Mirage called. She said she's found Incredible." He reported.

"Are you sure she wasn't lying?" He asked a bit skeptical.

"She said she sent you all the information." He said and ran off to return to his post.

"You go ahead and look over everything. I'll be waiting for you." Lex said knowing it was something he should do alone and kissed him before heading to his room. Syndrome quickly made his way to the main computer.

He opened the email from Mirage and watched all the videos she sent. It really was him. It pleased him to see that he had a miserable normal job as an insurance agent. After going over everything she had sent him at the bottom of her message she wrote that she had already given him the message about the Omni-Droid and that he would possibly be there within a week. After reading that he quickly made it back to his room to get some sleep.

Lex had already fallen asleep exhausted from a day in the sun. He pulled the covers over her and wrapped his arms around her. He wished he could have told her about his plan tonight. Now he didn't think he'd have time to tell her, or even time for her. Incredible would be coming soon and there was more than enough work to do to keep everyone busy.


	12. Not According To Plan

Mirage had arrived back just after they had breakfast. Syndrome was surprised when Lex told him that she wanted Mirage to handle Incredible when he arrived. Him and Avian spent the day testing the Omni-Droid and Lex and Travis were in charge of enforcing extra security measures throughout the entire island. Lex and Syndrome barely had a moment to themselves. Lex was glad it was almost time for his plan to finally be carried out, but Syndrome was worried about not being able to have as much time for her as he used to once he did get rid of Incredible.

The next afternoon Incredible arrived and destroyed the Omni-Droid. Syndrome invited him to dinner and skipped out on it to keep his identity still secret from Incredible and stayed locked up in his computer room. He made plans to invite him back and put him through different training sessions and obstacle courses to measure just how strong he really was. Lex and Avian worked on improved designs and intelligence for the next Omni-Droid. All seemed to be going well. At least he thought.

Lex had been keeping a close eye on Mirage still unable to trust her. So far Mirage had been keeping busy entertaining Incredible whenever he was at the island for training sessions showing him to his room and treating him to dinner. Then a month after Incredible had first came to the island Lex got a call from Travis that Mirage was up to something with Incredible and that she needed to come to the security room right away. Luckily for her Syndrome had already gone to bed exhausted from working on the Omni-Droid all day.

When she got there what she saw Mirage doing was so wretched she just looked at the screen and quickly headed to where Mirage and Incredible were 'enjoying' each other's company a bit too much. Incredible had gotten drunk off of drinking too many mimosas with Mirage who hadn't had a single drink. Lex was furious. She knew that if Syndrome ever found out he'd snap and possibly ruin his plans, but she wasn't going to let that happen. She waited outside of Incredible's room just down the hall and only ten minutes later Mirage emerged looking rather disheveled with her hair a mess with a smug look on her face. She walked right past Lex and she quietly followed her down the corridor and around the corner before being unable to contain herself anymore.

"What the hell are you doing with him?" Lex demanded shoving Mirage into the wall with her hand to her throat.

"What does it matter. It's not like Syndrome and I will ever be together again. I'm just _enjoying_ myself." She said sounding rather proud of herself.

"You stupid little slut!" Lex slammed her into the wall again wiping the smug look off of her face.

"I can't help it if I'm beautiful and everyone wants me." She said coldly eyeing Lex up and down. "I mean it's obvious no one ever wanted you. I wouldn't be surprised if Syndrome was the only man you've ever been with. You're a brainy little freak, no one..." She was cut off when Lex's grip tightened so hard around her throat that she couldn't breathe. Lex was trying so hard not to kill her but she couldn't stop herself Mirage had pushed her over the edge. She put her other hand around Mirage's neck and squeezed as hard as she could. All of a sudden something hard poked her in the chest and heard a metal click. Lex looked down to see that Mirage had a gun pointed at her chest with a silencer on it making Lex laugh maniacally.

"Do it. I _dare_ you." Lex threatened still laughing and Mirage pulled the trigger. Lex instantly dropped her and continued to laugh as she held her chest from the pain and pulled the flattened bullet off of her protective under armor and threw it in Mirage's direction where she sat in a heap on the floor gasping for breath rubbing her sore throat. She stared at the flattened bullet with a look of pure fear in her eyes.

Lex was sure that she had some bruised ribs where the bullet had hit her, but she really didn't care she was enjoying watching Mirage scramble to her feet as she shakily held the gun pointed at her again. She shot her again this time hitting her in the stomach. Lex fell to the floor clutching her stomach still laughing when Avian came running down the hall behind Mirage and hit her over the head with an electric bat knocking her unconscious.

"I _really_ don't like her..." Avian said kicking the gun out of her hand staring down at her pulling his arm back ready to hit her again just for the sake of hitting her when Lex yelled at him to come and help her. "Oh right. Sorry. Are you ok?" He asked rushing over to her and attempted to help her to her feet and she screamed out in pain.

"Just leave me. Have any more of your handy dandy tranquilizer on you?" Lex asked hopeful.

"Of course." He said pulling a filled syringe out the inside of his lab coat. "But why..." He didn't get to finish as Lex yanked it from his hand and uncapped the needle.

"Have someone put Mirage back in her room and get rid of her gun and have her room searched for anything else. Call Travis and have him come and get me." She explained as she stabbed the needle into her leg emptying the contents into herself welcoming the numbing blackness.

When she woke up she could feel the soreness of her ribs and her stomach. She threw lifted her shirt to find her ribs wrapped and there was an ice pack on her stomach. Lifting the ice pack revealed a large swollen bruise.

"You're awake." Travis said relieved. "They didn't find anything else in Mirage's room. Avian and I made copies of the feeds for you and deleted them replacing them with looped footage so Syndrome won't even notice if he looks into them."

"Thank you." She said wincing as she got out of bed removing the icepack.

"What are you doing? You need stay in bed. Your ribs are bruised and you're lucky you didn't have any internal bleeding from her getting you in the stomach." Travis explained getting ready to force her back in bed.

"No I'm packing. I can't stay here. If I do the next time I see her I will kill her, and I'm not going to mess things up. The sooner Syndrome gets rid of Incredible and carries out his plan the better for all of us." She said setting the icepack on her nightstand as she pulled her shirt back down and held her throbbing ribs.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Travis said quietly as if he was hiding something.

"What do you mean?" Lex demanded becoming suspicious.

"You should just check your email. I'm sure he sent one out to you too." He said holding her laptop out to her. She snatched it from him and sat on the couch ignoring the pain as she quickly navigated to her email to find a large file labeled 'Final Plan' from Syndrome. As she read through it, it all looked as he had already told her it would be until she got to the part after Incredible was eliminated along with his hometown.

"What the hell is this! He's going to pose as the good guy! It'll never work!" She slammed the computer shut and quickly got to her feet before buckling over in pain from standing up too fast and held her chest. Travis quickly got to his feet to help her and she waved him away. "I'm fine!" She screamed and sat on the edge of her bed with her face in her hands staring at the floor.

Now not just was he going to attack Incredible's hometown, but he was planning on saving it from his own creation and becoming their new super hero and defend them from his own inventions while he eliminates the rest of the supers on the side. Not only would that mean he would barely have time for her, but his plan would go on for years. It had already taken years, six years they had been at Nomanisan now and she couldn't even begin to think about staying longer. His plans were originally short and to the point, find Incredible and destroy him, but now things just seemed to get more complicated and drawn out. She was sure that Mirage had some influence on his new plan and she couldn't just sit there and watch him ruin everything and she knew that were was no talking him out if it, once he made up his mind there was no changing it.

"Pack my bag for me please and then get the jet ready. I'm going to tell him we're leaving and I'll meet you in the hangar." She explained holding her stomach as she stood on her feet.

"Lex you shouldn't be walking around. You need to stay in bed. Please we'll leave in a few days if you still want to once you've healed up more." Travis pleaded.

"No we're leaving tonight. I'll be fine. Please just pack my bags for me. I won't take too long." She said firmly and left her room and headed down the hall. She stood outside of Syndrome's door collecting herself before placing her hand on the large 'S' shaped handle making the door unlock. When she entered Syndrome wasn't in bed. Before she had time to go any further into the room he came out of the bathroom dressed in his suit ready to get to work. He stopped in his tracks when he caught sight of her.

Syndrome knew that this was coming but wasn't expecting it so soon in the day hoping that she would be asleep when he woke. He knew she might be angry with his new plan, but he wasn't prepared for what she was about to say.

"What is wrong with you? You didn't have the guts to tell me in person so you just send a mass email out to everyone!" She yelled throwing her arms about doing her best to ignore the pain in her chest and stomach.

"Lex I didn't know how to tell you. I knew you'd get mad at me, but it's not that bad is it? I'll still have time for us, I promise." He said closing the distance between them making her take a few steps back from him.

"No you won't, I know how you are. You'll be completely wrapped up in your inventions and hunting down the rest of the supers! Why can't you just stick to your original plan?" She asked resisting the urge to hold her chest not wanting him to know about her injuries.

"We'll work together to find the other supers. Lex I can't do this without you. Please I'll make time for us." He pleaded reaching a hand out to her and she turned away from him making his heart sink.

"Does your plan still include Mirage?" She asked coldly.

"She's still useful with her source in the NSA to help find the rest of the supers, and she's been extremely cooperative lately." He answered without fully thinking about his answer and he could see the anger in her eyes.

"Fine, then as long as she's here, I won't be." Lex said harshly hoping it'd get something better out of him.

"I don't really _need_ her help. We can just use the stuff she's already given us. Once Incredible is gone you can get rid of her. I promise." He pleaded and now had Lex trapped against his door and he was less than a foot away from her now and reached gloved hand to her face and she turned away from him before pulling his hand from her.

"Even then it doesn't matter. I can't stay here as long as she's here. If I see her again I will kill her." She threatened and Syndrome stared into her sad eyes.

"What did she do now?" He asked a bit afraid to know the answer.

"Nothing." She lied. "I just can't be around her. It's too complicated to explain. I'm leaving tonight and I won't be back until she's gone and that's my final decision." She explained firmly and he took her face in his hands.

"Please don't do this. Not now. I _need_ you here..." He rested his forehead on hers and they both closed their eyes. Lex held back her tears as he kissed her gently on the lips. He knew there was no point in trying to talk her out if it. It was obvious that she had already made up her mind and it hurt that she was leaving when he needed her the most.

"I know... but I can't stay here. When Incredible is dead, I _might_ come back..." She pulled him into another kiss and he leaned into her putting pressure on her chest. She stifled a cry of pain against his lips and he didn't even notice. "I love you..." She whispered looking up into his eyes.

"I love you..." He whispered back and kissed her one last time as she pushed the door open behind her and he slowly let go of her and she backed out of his room and into the large corridor shutting the door behind her. Once the door clicked shut Syndrome sat on his bed with his face in his gloved hands and Lex clutched her chest in pain. Not just physical pain, emotional as well. A pair of hands grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her around.

"You're stupid." Avian said bluntly and she looked up at him with her face contorted in pain. "You shouldn't be walking around. I don't care how stubborn you are. Are you trying to hurt yourself more? Not only are you putting yourself in extra physical pain but now you add emotional pain on top of that? You must really hate yourself." He shook his head with a smile and pulled a syringe out of his pocket and injected it into her neck. "Don't worry it's just morphine." He said and picked her up and began carrying her bridal style towards the hangar.

Lex's chest and stomach were throbbing so bad she didn't protest at all and the morphine kicked in just a moment later. Avian set her on the bed in the jet and gave Travis the ok to take off.

"Please at least attempt to relax while you're away." Avian said as he left the jet. "See you soon." He smiled and waved before disappearing. Once they were in the air Lex let herself fall asleep numb from the morphine.

Syndrome was determined to finish his final touches on the Omni-Droid and put it through its tests as soon as he could in the hope that he'd see Lex again that much sooner. Avian noticed and had no problem losing sleep in order to help him. A week had gone by and the droid was finally ready he was just waiting for Incredible to arrive.

Lex had spent most of her time in bed and in the lab. Her ribs weren't as sore and the bruises were now faded to an ugly green and yellow color. She had a bad feeling about Syndrome's plan to be the hero and just knew something would go wrong. Travis was helping her work on upgrades for her jet just in case something went really wrong. There was now a fully stocked medical area and Travis was working on installing a weapon defense system as Lex was determined to make a shield or some sort of invisibility cloak with little luck.

She had her laptop screen open to the security feeds at Nomanisan almost all the time. Lex had to convince Avian to stay over there just in case Mirage attempted to mess anything up. Syndrome still had no idea about the incident that her and Mirage had the night before she left and was planning on keeping it that way. She kept the original footage of it all in a hidden file on her computer. From what Avian had told her Incredible would be there within the hour.

Syndrome was pacing anxiously on the small rock that over looked the edge of the water fall as he waited for two o'clock when he knew Incredible would be in the meeting room waiting for him. The last five minutes went by so slow it felt like an hour to him. Then finally he was alerted that Incredible was where he was supposed to be.

Everyone in the base was trying to find the feeds to watch Syndrome but Lex was the only with access to them. Her and Travis watched intently. Once he had Incredible it was like he was a different person, darker. He was getting carried away and caught himself monologing. Lex knew then that there was no way he could pose as a super hero. He was too much of a villain, but not just any villain, one with a real purpose of revenge. Incredible almost got away, but luckily Syndrome's I bombs were made to go off even under water. Once Syndrome had taken the Omni-Droid to the hangar to be put into the rocket he called Lex.

"I know you were watching, he's gone now. Please come back just for now. I'm leaving the day after tomorrow." He begged wanting to see her again knowing he wouldn't get to see her much once he left. Lex wanted to say no but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She wanted to be wrong and have his plan actually work, and if it did work, she knew she'd barely get to see him.

"Ok I'm on my way." She promised and closed her laptop and turned to Travis and they both headed for the jet and flew the four hour trip. Syndrome was waiting for them in the hangar when they landed. The sun had just set and Syndrome smiled when he saw Lex wearing her eye mask. She smiled back at him and he rushed to her. As much as she wanted to still be mad at him for changing his original plan she couldn't. It didn't matter she just wanted to enjoy all the time she could get with him.

"Don't bother us unless it's an _absolute_ emergency." He laughed picking Lex up bridal style and carried her off to his room.

Lex was overwhelmed by him as he quickly shed his boots and gloves and crawled on top of her. Whatever reasons she had to be mad at him instantly melted away when his lips met with hers. They never wanted the night to end and Buddy started to dread leaving the next day. Unfortunately he saw the faded bruises that Lex had and she made up some stupid excuse of how she got them. Luckily he believed her when she said it was from an invention exploding. After wearing each other out they laid in each other's arms for the longest time. Both of them had things they wanted to say but neither of them said a thing.

They both finally fell asleep and the intercom rang waking them up the next day. They both groaned and noticed it was only eleven in the afternoon.

"Sir we need you in the containment unit. Incredible... he's still alive." The scared voice announced.

"He what!" Syndrome yelled back quickly getting out of bed.

"He also accessed your main computer. Travis has sent you all the details." The voice reported before the intercom shut off.

"Come on. I want you to come with me." He said holding his hand out to her. She stared at his hand and didn't moved.

"No, I can't." She said firmly.

"What? What do you mean?" He asked confused as he slipped into his suit.

"I can't go with you. I can't promise I won't kill him for you. You deserve to kill him. Not me. I know how much you hate him but I might actually hate him more than you do. He took a lot of things from you, but he took you from me and he still is." She explained. Buddy stared back at her and slowly started to realize that in a way she was right. If it wasn't for Incredible they could have been together all these years.

"If you won't go with me will you still stay? I don't leave until tomorrow. Please?" He asked with sad eyes and she nodded in response. Once he had done his hair and had his boots and gauntlets on they quickly read over what had happened. It seemed Incredible had successfully hid from his scanner and broke back into the base and found out about project Kronos and on top of all that a Government plane was trying to land on the island. Buddy kissed Lex before leaving and headed to the special containment unit where they were holding Incredible.

Lex got dressed and sat in the kitchen watching everything that was happening. Travis was in charge of the containment unit and was the only guard in there along with Syndrome and Mirage. As she watched Mirage she began to wonder why she was still here if he had thought Incredible was dead less than twenty four hours ago then remember that once Incredible was thought to be dead Buddy instantly turned his attention to Lex. She'd have to ask him about her next time she saw him. He launched missiles at the government plane after Incredible made it clearly obvious he knew who the people were and shot them down. Incredible seemed deeply affected by it. Did the pilot say that there were children aboard?

Her thoughts on it were interrupted when Mirage pushed Syndrome out of the way of Incredible and he grabbed ahold Mirage instead and threatened to kill her. Syndrome urged him on. Lex knew he wouldn't kill her but she still hoped that he was angry enough to hurt her. He let her drop to the floor unharmed and Mirage looked betrayed. What was even better about the situation was he probably didn't even remember than night he shared with her. As they all left the containment unit Incredible was actually crying and Lex saw the look of sadness that Mirage gave him.

Syndrome returned to his room to find Lex sitting on his couch going through all the files that they had on the supers on her laptop.

"What're you up to?" He asked sitting next to her on the bed.

"Wondering why Mirage is still here." She said turning to him.

"She hasn't given me all the supers' secret identities yet. Once I have them I won't need her anymore. I promise." He explained making Lex glare back at him.

"But you have almost all of them. I'll help you find the rest." Lex pleaded.

"But she can give me all of them. It'll make finding them a lot faster. The sooner we have them all the sooner I can get rid of them and have more time for us." He explained hoping she'd understand. She knew it would be faster and sadly couldn't argue with him about it.

"I know. So what are you going to do with Incredible?" She asked.

"Make him watch me destroy his hometown." He said evilly.

"What? Why not just kill him and so he doesn't have the chance to ruin your plans?" Lex asked angrily.

"How is he going to ruin my plans? There is no way he can get out of there." He said confidently.

"What about Mirage?" She asked setting her laptop aside.

"What do you mean? You think she's going to help him?" He was confused. Why would she help Incredible? She had been so helpful lately.

"Yes I do! I don't trust her and neither should you! She tried to kill you and she even tried to kill me!" Lex blurted out.

"What do you mean she tried to kill you?" He demanded.

"It doesn't matter now. So long as she's here and Incredible is still alive I won't be around." She said firmly grabbing her laptop and heading for the door. Syndrome's heart sank. She was leaving again when he needed her the most. He grabbed her by the wrist and she yanked herself free.

"Lex please don't go. I need you right now. I can't do this without you." He pleaded blocking the door.

"Well then maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to change your plan. I love you but I can't stay here and watch you ruin everything." She explained shoving past him.

"Lex please don't go! I love you!" He shouted after her as she made her way to the hangar. She called Travis to meet her in the jet and not long after they were on their way back to Kamalu Island. When they arrived Lex began working on different formula's and testing them out to create an invisible shield to use on the jet or other things. The rest of the day went by rather fast and Travis practically forced her to bed.

Syndrome had launched the Omni-Droid just before he retired to bed. He had attempted to be extra nice to Mirage in hope that she'd get the names he needed that much faster. She was angry at him about Incredible almost killing her.

"Lex would've understood." He mumbled to himself before he drifted off to sleep. The next morning he was woken up by an alarm. There were other supers on the island and Incredible had been let free. "Mirage..." He said angrily knowing it had to be her who had helped him. He was tempted to call Lex to let her know that she was right about Mirage and ask her to come back when a haunting question popped into his head, who were the other supers?


	13. Accidental New Plan

Lex caught a glimpse of two young supers that had set the alarms off. The younger blonde boy had super speed and the older slender girl could become invisible and create force fields. She noticed that their super suits were identical to Incredible's. Did he have kids? And if so with who? She quickly scanned all the feeds and saw Mirage release Incredible only to be joined by Elastigirl. Incredible and Elastigirl were together and they had two super children together, just great.

"What are we going to do?" Travis asked watching the feeds with her.

"We'll be ready just in case something goes wrong." She said and watched as Syndrome caught all four of the supers in his zero point energy. As he brought them back inside Lex called Avian and instructed him to get some DNA from each of them in the hope she could use it for something later.

She watched as Syndrome unveiled his plan to them before leaving on his jet for Incredible's hometown Metroville. Lex shook her head as she watched him leave the containment unit. He was too much of a villain to pull off the good guy act he was planning to attempt. Avian quickly got some DNA from each of them right after Syndrome left and took one of the mantajets to Kamalu. Just before Avian arrived the supers had escaped on their own.

"This is _not_ good." Lex said and connected her laptop to the main computer in the new base and began downloading everything from Nomanisan to Kamalu she was almost done when Avian arrived and handed her the small vials of blood. "Thank you." She said and almost crushed them in her hand when she saw Mirage giving the supers access to the remaining rocket to fly them out of there. "I'm going to kill her _slow_." She growled at the screen.

"Don't worry she won't get very far." Avian smiled. "After we found out Incredible was still alive I knew she'd be a problem so I put a micro tracking device on her. Well in her to be more precise. She's so moronic, she thought it was a vaccine for a plant she was pricked by on the island." He laughed.

"You're amazing." Lex hugged him.

"Why thank you." He gloated. "So did I miss anything?"

"Yeah the supers are all free and on their way back to Metroville on the spare rocket. We need to leave _now_." Travis explained and Lex nodded in agreement.

"I'm transferring everything over here from Nomanisan's computer. On our way there can you start evacuation code red and tell them to get as many goons and equipment over here as fast as they can." Lex explained and Avian nodded. "Ok I'm going to grab a few things and get the jet ready for takeoff."

Lex was now wearing her gauntlets and zero point energy gloves with her eye mask on and joined them on the jet. She couldn't bear to watch Syndrome through the Omni-Droids cameras. He unknowingly blew up a huge oil truck killing a few people behind him as he flung it away from a lady and her baby to save them. Then things just got worse. He was being cocky and the Omni-Droid suddenly shot his remote gauntlet off and one of his boots failed and he flew into a building knocking himself unconscious. Luckily they upgraded the engines on her jet and Kamalu was a lot closer to Metroville than Nomanisan was.

They arrived a little after the supers had engaged the Omni-Droid. Lex used the secret homing device in Syndrome's suit to locate him he was still unconscious on the roof of a building. Once the Omni-Droid was destroyed they were still on their way to Syndrome when he came to.

Syndrome stirred and pulled himself up only to look over the ledge of the building to see that his Omni-Droid had been destroyed and everyone was cheering for Mr. Incredible and his family who also had help Frozone. "No!" He said angrily and took off on his rocket boots. Luckily he had previously looked up Bob Parr's, Mr. Incredible's, home address and also learned that they had another child who was still just a baby. He would take the kid and make him his own to use against Incredible.

Lex saw that Syndrome was on the move and he suddenly stopped in a residential neighborhood. They landed in a nearby field and they all sat and waited. She wanted to go and see what he was up to but decided she'd let him carryout whatever backup plan he had.

"He's in Incredible's house. I've hacked into the city's security camera system." Avian said typing away at the computer. "The NSA is taking the supers back to their house. What is Syndrome thinking taking on all four of them... wait... they have a third kid, he's just a baby..."

"Oh..." Lex suddenly understood what he was up to. "Why is he waiting around for them? He should just leave with the kid. They'll try and stop him and probably succeed!" She said rushing out of the Jet.

"Lex what are you doing?" Travis ran out of the jet after her.

"I'm not going to let the NSA touch him!" She yelled and ran down the street when she saw his jet stop just above the house Syndrome was in when she saw him flying up out of the house with a screaming baby in hand. She couldn't see what was happening but whatever it was it didn't look good and the baby was crawling all over him then broke one of his rocket boots sending him flying up into the jet making him drop the child.

Suddenly Elastigirl was flying through the air and caught the baby stretching herself into a parachute. She couldn't hear what Syndrome was saying, but she was sure it was a threat of some sort. Then a car went flying towards his jet knocking Syndrome into one of the jet turbines.

"No!" Lex screamed and started running towards the Parr house. Travis grabbed her and held her back as they both watched the jet explode and land on the Parr house. Once the smoke cleared Travis released her and she ran towards the rubble activating the homing device on his suit making it beep. She listened hard for the sound and threw pieces of metal and wood out of the way with zero point energy as she got closer and closer to the beeping. She lifted a huge piece of scrap metal from the jet to reveal Syndrome. Tears were streaming down Lex's face as Avian and Travis joined her with a stretcher and a large medical kit.

All of his limbs were contorted in impossible ways and a large piece of shrapnel was lodged into his left eye. She threw a large wooden beam of the house off of his chest. He was barely breathing but he was still alive somehow. There wasn't a single rip in his suit. She knew it was probably the only thing that was holding his limbs together. Blood was seeping through his suit in several places especially his right leg. It was so hard for her to keep it together as she threw the rest of the rubble off of him and out of the way and she gently set him on the stretcher. Most of his hair hand been singed off in the explosion and he was missing half of his right hand there was no telling how badly his legs and arms were hurt under the suit.

Once they had him on the jet and on the medical table Travis flew them back as quickly as the engines could take them. Lex was glad the suit kept the shrapnel from penetrating almost his entire body and his detachable cape must have saved him from being completely sucked into the turbine. She gave him a large dose of sedative not wanting him to wake up until he was more stable. Unfortunately they didn't have the tools with them to cut through his suit. They'd need a special pair of laser scissors that Edna had given her in case she ever needed them back at Kamalu to cut through his suit.

Lex had to make the hard decision to cut off the rest of his mangled hand knowing it'd be easier to just replace his entire hand than just his knuckles and fingers. She wanted to remove the piece of metal from his head, but it completely destroyed his eye and the metal was wide enough to go two inches above and one below his eye socket. She didn't want to remove it until she had something for the wound to heal over so they could still replace it with an artificial eye.

Luckily they found out that according to the NSA Syndrome was dead and the goons almost had Nomanisan completely evacuated before they came and shut it down. Once they got to Kamalu they got to work on Syndrome so they could get him stabilized. Everyone was waiting for them to arrive and they took him off to the medical wing. Lex followed while Avian and Travis ran to the lab to construct something for his mangled eye socket to heal over so they could eventually replace his eye.

When they cut his suit opened they found out how bad of shape his limbs were in. His suit may have protected him from direct contact from the turbine but his legs were badly injured. They had to amputate just past his knee on his right leg and halfway up his calf on his left. Besides Lex amputating his right hand his arms weren't that bad. His left arm was broken and had been pulled out of its socket.

On top of all of that there was internal bleeding. His spleen was ruptured and he needed a new liver. The goon that was a match gladly gave up his liver to him. Avian and Travis had finished making a new eye socket for him and after stabilizing everything else they finally removed the shrapnel from his eye and put the device in place. Lex sat with him for hours even though she knew he wouldn't wake up for a few days. Avian had to drag her away and to the lab.

She knew she needed to get to work on his artificial limbs but it was so hard to leave his side. A week had gone by and he still hadn't woken up yet. Her and Avian had finished making the connections that his limbs would attach to and had them connected to his nerves and tendons. They had him strapped down as Avian connected the prototype for his hand just in case he woke up. She swore that once he was recovered she'd do anything to help him get revenge on Incredible for what he had done to him. No one was going to try and take him out of her life and get away with it.

The last thing Syndrome remembered was seeing a car flying at him and knocking him into the turbine of his own manta jet then falling endlessly into a painful heap and the sound of Lex screaming and a faint annoying beeping noise. Was Lex there in Metroville? Where was he? He didn't feel any pain like he was before he blacked out and could hear Lex and Avian talking. His left eye felt extremely heavy but he attempted to open his eyes anyway only getting his right one open. Lex and Avian were sitting on his right looking rather distracted by what they were doing and when he went to lift his head he found that he was strapped down. Lex noticed his small movement and her eyes went wide.

"Buddy?" Lex asked already leaning over him and placing a kiss on his lips. He attempted to move his arm to touch her only to have Avian make an annoyed noise.

"Glad to see that you're awake but please don't move your right arm. This isn't easy to do you know." Avian instructed.

"What is he talking about and what's wrong with my eye?" He demanded.

"Well first tell me what you remember." Lex said with a bit of worry. Buddy thought about it for a moment.

"We were mad at each other. I yelled at you and blamed you for everything, then you had to bring up your parents death. I'm sorry about that but it wasn't anyone's fault." He said waiting for her response.

"You mean you don't remember the last _four_ years?" Lex looked worried.

"Four years?" He pretended to be surprised. "Did I miss anything?" He asked curious if she would tell him what really happened. She rested her face in her hands then looked up at him with sad eyes. As much as she would love to make up something that made him forget all about Incredible she couldn't bring herself to lie to him.

"Yes you missed _a lot_. First you thought I was cheating on you with Travis so you did the same to me with Mirage. Long story short you and her were together longer than we were and then she started to sabotage everything and we eventually got back together and then she tried to kill you by putting you into anaphylactic shock with strawberries then I caught her sleeping with Incredible one of the nights we had him at the base for training after he destroyed your ninth Omni-Droid design and she tried to kill me by shooting me! And when you..."

"She what? Why didn't you tell me that she shot you, so that's where those bruises really came from! And Incredible? Is that why you left after you knew my new plan?" He couldn't hold the charade up anymore.

"Yes that's why she left and pretending to have memory loss isn't very nice." Avian commented as he continued what he was doing.

"I wanted to know if you'd lie to make me forget what really happened." He said to Lex who glared down at him angrily.

"You're lucky you're already badly injured Buddy Pine or else I'd have to seriously hurt you." She said angrily. "Why would I lie to you?"

"I was just curious to know what you would say. Maybe leave certain things out. But why didn't you tell me about Mirage and Incredible? I never would have kept her alive if I knew _that_." He said feeling his face turn red with anger.

"Because I knew you would kill her and you were determined to know the location of the rest of the supers. I thought she would have given them to you too, but we were both wrong." She admitted. Buddy tried to lift his head again.

"How am I injured and what is Avian doing to me? Unstrap me." He demanded and attempted to move his left arm making a sharp shooting pain go through it making him wince.

"Stop moving. Your left arm had to be put back in its socket and was broken in three different places and two of your fingers were broken and your right hand..." She trailed off unable to finish her sentence.

"We had to cut it off. Along with most of your right leg and some of your left leg and your left eye is gone too. There is all kinds of other things we had to do and replace your liver and stop internal bleeding and whatnot. You can read the damage report later." Avian said nonchalantly as he finished connecting his prototype hand. "I'm almost done connecting your prototype hand. I'll un-strap you when I'm done." Lex and Buddy both stared at Avian then to each other.

"How in the hell am I alive?" He asked Lex and she explained the things she did to his new suit that saved him and helped them find him. "I love you." He smiled up at her wishing he could reach out and touch her. She placed a light kiss on his lips. "I'm going to _kill_ Incredible the next time I see him." He said angrily.

"Alright let's sit you up then I'll power your hand up and run a few tests on it." Avian said as he released him from his restraints. Lex had told him what happened to him but it was scary to see the stumps that his legs had become and his chest ached as he sat up. It was going to take awhile to get back to normal, if that was even possible. After Avian ran his tests he attempted to convince Lex to let him out of the medical wing.

"Please?" He begged. "I just want to see the rest of the base. I'll even let you wheel me around in a wheelchair."

"No you don't need to be moving around just yet. You almost died only a week ago! You're staying in bed whether you like it or not." Lex said firmly as she adjusted his bed so he could sit up more comfortably.

"Fine." Buddy grumbled staring down at the stumps that his legs had become. "Can I at least use my computer?"

"Yes, I could use your help redesigning the zero point energy to work in your artificial hand. We've been waiting for you to wake up to decide what to do with your legs." Lex explained and Buddy's eyes lit up.

"Zero point energy all the time... I like the sound of that..." He smiled at Lex as she placed a kiss on his forehead.

Travis brought Buddy's computer up to the medical wing and Lex, Buddy, and Avian all worked on designing the rest of his artificial limbs. Buddy was determined to get his eye schematics done before anything else. He was becoming frustrated having limited movement of his broken arm and his prototype hand wasn't much help either. He explained to Lex and everyone what had happened in Metroville and about his last minute plan of stealing Incredible's son.

By the end of the day Lex had several designs for his legs and finally figured out how to get the zero point energy to work in Buddy's new hand and still have it work through his gloves when he wore them. Buddy had finished designing his eye and had all the parts gathered up and ready for the next day so they could put it together.

Avian spent the most of the day constructing the artificial skin to go over Syndrome's new limbs and configuring the touch sensitivity for them. Travis disappeared for most of the day and hadn't been seen for several hours. Lex noticed him enter the medical wing looking rather worried.

"Travis? What's wrong?" She asked afraid of what the answer could be. Luckily Syndrome was busy with Avian as they came up with a more efficient way to power his new limbs. Travis just stared back at her unsure of what to say.

"I don't know how to say this..." He said shakily. "But... she's pregnant..."

"Who is? Who... oh no..." She lowered her voice. "Mirage?" She whispered and Travis nodded. "There is no way in hell it's _his_." She said motioning to Buddy.

"I know, we've been keeping an eye on her to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid like tell the NSA about you, but it... It's Mr. Incredible's..." He explained hesitantly.

"Then what's the problem? Syndrome wanted to take Incredible's kid we'll just take the baby from her or hold her here." She replied confused.

"That's the thing. She's going to get _rid_ of it." He said gravely.

"What? We've got to stop her!" Lex screamed louder than intended and got Syndrome's attention and she quickly put her hand over her mouth.

"Lex what're you screaming about?" He looked up at her suspiciously. She grabbed Travis by the arm and dragged him over to his bedside with her.

"Tell him." She said knowing it was no use to try and hide it from him.

"Well... um..." Travis looked petrified.

"It's Mirage..." Lex spoke for him knowing how hard it was for him. "She's pregnant with Incredible's child. But she's going to terminate the pregnancy." Buddy looked at the both of them seriously then burst out laughing.

"Nice one Lex, is this pay back for the memory loss thing?" He chuckled making Avian take a step away from him and he laughed even harder and held his sore stitches on his side as he did. Lex was surprised by his reaction.

"Syndrome, we're not joking." She said seriously and his laughter instantly ceased. He knew she was definitely not joking if she called him by his villain name like that.

"We need to stop her." He said firmly looking up at Lex his blue eyes icing over. "I _need_ that baby."


	14. Make It Ours

“We understand but we can’t just kidnap Mirage and keep her here. The NSA would notice if she suddenly went missing.” Travis explained.

“I know how we can do it and Mirage will never even know we have the child.” Avian said spinning around in his chair to face them. Everyone looked at him waiting for him to go on.

“Go on.” Syndrome urged after a moment of silence.

“I have an old friend. She was kicked out of the NSA about fourteen years ago for messing with supers unborn children and their DNA. She's the one I was collecting supers DNA for. She can go and extract the child from Mirage letting her think she terminated it. She has the technology and equipment to bring the child back here and make it yours.” Avian explained looking off into space as if he was elsewhere. “Her name is Veetra Danz.”

“What do you mean make it ours?” Lex asked as Syndrome looked her up on his computer.

“She can change the child’s appearance, hair and eye color and so on. She can also change their DNA to give them almost any super powers.” He said staring off into space again.

“I take it that’s why she was kicked out of the NSA. Call her and tell her she’s hired. Travis keep an eye on Mirage and make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid before Veetra can get to her.” Syndrome demanded and the two went off to do as they were instructed and he looked to Lex worried she was against his new plan.

“What?” She asked sitting next to him in his bed.

“You’re ok with this plan right?” He asked a bit afraid of what her answer might be.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Buddy after what Incredible and his family did to you I will do _anything_ to get revenge on him.” She replied seriously and kissed him passionately. “There is no way I’m going to let someone try and take you away from me and get away with it.” Lex said darkly running her fingers though his short red hair.

“Since when did you become so vengeful?” He asked a bit surprised by how serious and _evil_ she sounded.

“Since they almost killed you. Since I saw your manta jet explode and I found you in a bloody heap beneath the rubble of the Parr house. This isn’t just your revenge now. It’s _our_ revenge.” Lex explained her eyes not focusing on anything as she imagined the things she wanted to do to Mr. Incredible and his family.

Buddy stared back at her seeing everything in her eyes anger, sadness, hatred, and revenge. He never thought he’d see those things in her all at once, but it was there. It angered him that he allowed this to happen. He slipped up in his plans and almost got himself killed and it made its mark on Lex like the day Incredible rejected him. Incredible and his family were going to pay for what they did to him and what they did to Lex no matter what it took.

The rest of the week everyone worked on making Syndrome’s limbs and adding special features to them all as well. Buddy kept taking his new eye out and adjusting it at least three times a day. His hand was finished and complete with built in Zero Point Energy. They had the legs fully constructed and were just waiting for the synthetic skin to be finished. Lex rolled her eyes at Buddy as he put his eye back in after messing with it. He blinked a few times to get it to focus and its blue illuminated iris stared back at Lex.

“You need to stop messing with it so your stitches can heal.” She said as she stared to clean around them with q-tips and rubbing alcohol making him wince.

“It’s almost perfect. Just needs a few more adjustments.” He smiled at her as she finished cleaning up the stitches around his eye. Travis entered bringing a wheelchair making Buddy’s eyes light up. “You’re finally letting me out of bed?” He asked eyeing the chair excitedly.

“Yep.” Lex replied kissing him lightly on the lips. After the fun struggle of getting him from the bed to the chair Lex wheeled him around the base as he grinned, so happy to finally be out of the medical wing. He complimented her on everything and more that she had done with the place. His favorite was his new personal lab which had the main computer in it as well.

After they ate lunch together they spent some time in his personal lab and Buddy finally perfected his eye and vowed to Lex that he wouldn’t tinker with it anymore. They were called out to the hangar and waited to welcome Veetra. Avian looked beyond excited and Lex and Buddy could tell that he probably had some history with her. When she stepped out of the manta jet Avian looked like he was ready to go and swoop her off of her feet and carry her away.

She was rather short, shorter than Lex even. Her skin was pale as if she had never seen the light of day contrasting greatly with her black short spikey hair with long vibrant red bangs tucked behind her ears. A tiny pair of glasses rested on her small nose barely hiding her light brown eyes and she wore a long dark red skirt with a black and red striped spaghetti strapped shirt. Her eyes instantly set on Avian lighting up.

“Danny Bird!” She said happily and rushed to give him a hug. He was blushing when she released him.

“Hi Veetra.” He said shyly and she smiled to herself and held her hand out to Syndrome who shook it.

“Syndrome I presume?” She asked before hopping a step over and gave Lex a hug. “And you must be Lex! I’m so glad to know that there is another girl going to be here!”

“You’re an odd one aren’t you?” Syndrome asked eyeing her strangely.

“Why yes I am.” She smiled proudly. “So whose baby to I get to play with? Your email said it was a supers baby I’m excited! It’s been so long since I got a young one to play with.” She said happily. “So which supers is it?”

“Mr. Incredible and Mirage’s.” Lex explained and Veetra’s eyes lit up.

“So he doesn’t know about it does he? Mirage… I think I’ve heard of her…” She asked and Syndrome and Lex nodded in reply. “Oh this is just great! I can get my revenge on him for getting me fired from the NSA all those years ago!” Everyone including Avian eyed her questioningly. “Oh well have you seen his daughter? Ever notice she doesn’t look much like her parents? That was my doing. I thought it’d be fun to test to see if I could change her physical features to match her powers since I figured out what they were before she was even born.” She laughed. “But the NSA along with Mr. Incredible and his wife Elastigirl didn’t think so.”

“You’re definitely hired.” Syndrome said as Lex started to wheel him through the base alongside Veetra and Avian.

“Oh I’m so glad you picked me for this! I was getting really bored with my other experiments. Didn’t have proper test subjects either…” Veetra trailed off and smiled at Avian and quickly took his hand in hers making him jump. He looked like he was about to melt and was trying to hold himself together not used to the attention she was suddenly giving him. She pulled him closer to her and he fainted. “Oops look what I did now. I haven’t even been here a day and he’s all butterflies.” She laughed.

“Travis can you come and get Avian please he’s in corridor B of the hangar. And have someone get Veetra’s things.” Lex said into her headset.

“Already on my way.” Travis replied laughing. He had to be watching the feeds.

Lex and Syndrome explained everything to Veetra and had started setting up a lab space for her since she needed all of her equipment set up and working before she could go and retrieve the baby. The two started to realize as they sat in the lab attaching Syndrome’s legs later that evening with Avian after he woke back up that neither of them really talked about the baby and what their plans were for it.

Avian just finished configuring the synthetic skin on Syndrome’s new legs and ran off to go have dinner with Veetra leaving Lex and Syndrome alone in the lab together. Buddy was sitting in his wheelchair flexing his new legs and picking things up with his toes doing little tests on them before he decided to try and walk on them.

“I’m so glad you’re finally whole again. If it wasn’t for your eye I wouldn’t even be able to tell you were almost....” She trailed off not wanting to say the last word and lightly ran a finger beside the stitches below his eye making him lean into her hand.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.” He said and pulled her into his lap kissing her passionately. She rested her head on his shoulder and kissed his neck.

“I miss this.” She said sadly and he wrapped his arms around her.

“Me too.” He held her close. “You know what else I miss?” He tightened his grip on her and stood from his wheel chair on his new legs. “Carrying you to bed.”

“Oh my god! Buddy be careful you’re not used to them yet!” Lex yelled a bit afraid he’d fall over. But to her surprise his steps didn’t falter at all and he carried her out of the lab and down the corridor to _their_ room.

“See I’m fine.” He smiled at her as he laid her down on the bed. It was so strange it didn’t even feel like his legs weren’t his along with his hand. The only things that were different really was having Zero Point Energy in his new hand and being able to see all kinds of extra things with his new and improved eye. He could see Lex’s heart racing as she stared up at him and if he wanted he could see everything in infrared as well as many other spectrums of light and magnification and so on. There were so many things he wanted to do with Lex but he knew she wouldn’t let him until he was fully healed. She went through so much trouble to make sure he’d be whole again; there was nothing that either of them wouldn’t do for each other.

“Lay with me.” Lex pleaded and entwined her fingers with his. He quickly obeyed and they both striped down to their underwear and got under the covers together. He wrapped his legs and arms around her and she snuggled into his chest. They fell asleep entwined in one another.

They woke up a bit late and took their time getting ready for the day. No one dared to bother them until they came out of their room together knowing that Syndrome could finally walk again.

Syndrome felt so good to be back in his super suit and rocket boots. Lex put his eye mask on for him and he did the same for her and they put their gloves and gauntlets on and walked down the corridor together hand in hand to the kitchen for breakfast. Avian and Travis were sitting together talking rather quietly in the corner drinking coffee and the two joined them and Avian turned red when they looked at him. He had a bite mark on his neck and one on his ear.  

“Wow… Avian… Veetra must really like you.” Lex said and Buddy chuckled.

“Yeah… she’s liked me since high school… we’ve known each other for a long time. I’ve liked her for as long as I can remember. I had no idea she liked me back this whole time…” He said quietly as Veetra entered the kitchen wearing red pajama pants and a black tank top and her hair was a mess. She skipped over to their table and sat next to Avian giving him a kiss on the lips making him turn completely red.

“Morning.” She said happily and rested her head on Avian’s shoulder. Buddy tried to contain himself as he enjoyed the functions of his new eye seeing Avian’s heart rate go up as Veetra cuddled up to him. Lex nudged him lightly as he let out a snicker.

“What’s so funny?” Veetra asked as if her behavior towards Avian wasn’t anything unusual.

“You… never mind. You’re just very strange… I’ll leave it at that.” Buddy shook his head trying not to laugh.  

“Thanks.” She smiled happily like it was a compliment. “So it should take about a week to get everything set up the way I need it and test everything then I’ll be ready to get that super baby.” Lex gave Buddy a look and he knew what she was thinking. They still had yet to talk about anything involving their plans and just the baby in general. Travis noticed and stood from the table.

“I’m going to get a few guys and get started on assembling your equipment.” He said to Veetra who took Avian by the hand.

“We’re right behind you. Avian just needs to help me get dressed first.” She giggled dragging the red faced Avian out of the kitchen behind her leaving Lex and Buddy alone. They stared at each other for a few moments.

“So we’re going to have a kid.” Buddy said awkwardly breaking the silence.

“A super’s kid…” Lex added and they both let out a sigh. “So what are we going to do with it?”

“I don’t even know… use it to destroy Incredible or tear his family apart… have it… her or him… get into the NSA and learn about the other supers… Lex what are we doing? For the first time in sixteen years I don’t have a plan…” Buddy held his head in his hands. Lex put a hand on his shoulder and he turned to her.

“We’ll figure it out. We have nine months to come up with ideas. Whatever we plan to do it will work. I know it will. Besides the NSA doesn’t know you’re alive and from what I can tell they don’t even know I exist.” She said hoping to make him feel better.

“I know. But there is no way to be sure that Mirage didn’t tell the NSA about you. If they think she’s hiding anything they’ll go to great lengths to get it out of her. They could be searching for you already.” He said looking at her with fear in her eyes.

“Don’t worry. If they do ever come after me there is no way they’d find me. Besides I can handle myself.” She explained and kissed him lightly on the lips. As much as he knew she’d be fine if they ever did take her away from him there was no way he could allow himself to stay hidden for very long.

Things were going to change soon with the child and it scared him to think it might change him and Lex’s relationship for the worse. He was almost himself again and now the kid would bring a whole new array of problems and complications to everything. What did he know about being a parent? Not much. His parents always left him to do as he pleased and he basically raised himself and Lex’s childhood was about the same. They left the kitchen and headed to the lab to work and think.  

They worked on a few different inventions in silence. Lex was thinking the exact same things as Buddy. She finally had him back and things were already going to get complicated again with the baby. On top of that there was the stress of all the ‘what ifs’ and other questions. Are they going to raise it as their own or just use it for their plans? Did Buddy even want kids? It was something that they had never talked about. Hell they never even talked about marriage even though they might as well be married. Then again something like that didn’t really seem all that important. It was more a luxury that they both would never get to share, but it was something she wanted, a chance to feel like a _normal_ couple. She began imagining what it would be like when Syndrome’s words interrupted her thoughts.

“I want to make it _ours_.” He blurted out and looked to her for a response.

“The kid?” Lex asked making sure she heard him right.

“Yes. I think it’d work out better. I’ve always wanted to have some normality between us and I think the baby would be perfect for that. I mean look at what we have been doing? We've just been scattered all over the place, fighting, killing, inventing, and planning. We _need_ this. For the first time we both have no clue what we’re getting ourselves into. Something new and semi-normal. I want to do this with you.” He explained as Lex stared back at him speechless. The whole time they had been in the lab he couldn’t stop thinking about making things real between him and Lex and hoped that she would see the potential this had to bringing them even closer together.

Lex stared back at him as she processed what he had just said. He had said the exact same thing that she was thinking.

“I love you. You stole the words right out of my mouth.” She smiled and pulled him into a kiss.

“Really?” He smiled back at her and put his forehead to hers and looked deep into her eyes.  “I love you.” He whispered and lightly placed a kiss on her lips. They both sat back in their chairs and stared at one another for a few moments.

“We’re going to be…” Buddy began and was having a hard time saying the last word.

“…Parents.” Lex said for him and both of them just stared wide eyed at each other imagining what was to come.                 


	15. Imminently Apprehensive

Lex was keeping a close eye on Mirage the next few days. Mirage was panicked and obviously didn’t know what to do knowing that she was carrying Mr. Incredible’s child. There was no one she could tell and she didn’t know where to go to get rid of it safely and there was no way she would keep it or have it and give it up. It would eventually get traced back to her. The NSA was finally done questioning her and from what they could tell she told them nothing about Lex. She must’ve been too afraid of someone coming for her.

            Veetra and Avian came up with a plan to abort the baby and get it safely back to Kamalu. Once they found out just how much the NSA wasn’t watching Mirage they decided to go set up a small fake abortion center and get her to go there. Syndrome was helping to finish set up Veetra’s lab and was determined to get the child as soon as possible.

            It was odd that the NSA wasn’t constantly watching her like they feared they would and they even seemed to trust her quite a bit as she began to show an interest in working for them again. They must have been too busy dealing with supers, new and old, coming out of hiding. Lately it seemed like Mirage was avoiding the NSA too wrapped up in trying to find a way out of her current predicament. 

Lex joined Syndrome for lunch and they ate on the beach together to get some fresh air away from all the chemicals and equipment they had been dealing with to get Veetra’s lab finished. All that was left to do was have Avian wire Veetra’s equipment into the main computer and it would be finished.

“There that’s better.” Lex smiled at Buddy as she removed his eye mask lightly kissing the freckles below his eyes.

“Thanks love.” He smiled up at her as he unpacked their little lunch box and passed her a sandwich as he dug his toes into the sand. They sat back to back as they ate then laid side by side on their blanket looking into each other.

“I still can’t believe we’re going to be parents.” Lex blurted out.

“I know… Veetra said she’d put a bit of each of us into it so in a way it will be ours.” Buddy explained.

“I think she should choose how to do it so it’s a surprise for us when he’s born.” She said and he looked at her oddly.

“He?” He asked.

“Well I can hope can’t I. Girls are crazy.” She laughed.

“Yes you are.” He smiled and she rolled on top of him.

“Love you too.” She said kissing him gently on the lips.

They spent the rest of the evening on the beach together and were later joined by Travis, Avian, and Veetra for dinner. It was entertaining to watch Avian try not to melt every time Veetra touched him and Travis was playing with the remote mini Omni-Droid.

Everything was ready for Avian and Veetra to leave in the morning. Travis had found all the footage that the street cameras had caught in Metroville when Incredible and his family destroyed the Omni-Droid along with the footage that the Omni-Droid took itself. Lex and Syndrome headed to the main computer to watch all the footage before bed.

Lex took notes on Incredible’s children and their powers while Syndrome configured a new design for his Omni-Droid.

“I still can’t believe Incredible had kids with Elastigirl.” Syndrome said staring up at the screen. “You said you had DNA from all of them right?”

“Honey we have blood samples from every super that’s ever come to Nomanisan, Avian made sure if it.” Lex explained eyeing his new Omni-Droid plans he was drawing up.

“Really? That could prove to be useful. Especially with Veetra’s help.” He smiled to himself.

“Buddy Pine why are you drawing up new Omni-Droid schematics?” She asked staring him down. He watched as her heart rate went up.

“Don’t be mad. I can’t help it.” He said innocently. “I was thinking we could use Avian’s smaller design and use it once we figure out our plan.”

“That would be a good idea, but you should really just relax for awhile and finish healing. You still have a few weeks until all your stitches come out. You don’t need to be building a new Omni-Droid just yet.” She pleaded and he placed a kiss on her forehead.

“I know. I promise I’ll just design them for now. No big inventing for awhile.” He frowned. “Can I at least work on a better pair of rocket boots? Incredible’s baby was able to break them without a problem.” He said making a scared face remembering how out of control the baby had gotten.

“I was meaning to ask you about that. What happened up there? All we could see was the baby crawling all over you. Does he even have any super powers?” Lex asked curiously.

“Yes he does, a wide range of them at that. He turned into a fire ball, a demon, and even turned into solid lead all while I was trying to fly him up to the jet. It was insane!” He said shaking his head as he remembered all the horrific details following that.

“That’s strange. I wish we could have gotten some of his DNA.” She said trying to imagine what that would have looked liked watching the baby change into each different form.

“I hope ours doesn’t end up crazy and scary like that.” Buddy said with worry.

“Well you can always have Veetra choose what kind of powers our baby ends up with.”  She said as she realized what she had said.

“Our baby…” Buddy said staring back at her longingly.

“I can’t believe they leave in the morning to get the embryo from Mirage. What are we going to name it? Will it stay in our room or have its own? Are we supposed to watch it all the time or have someone else help us? What about…” Lex was cut off when Buddy pulled her into a kiss.

“Lex calm down. I’m scared too. We’ll figure it out. Like you said we have plenty of time to figure out what we’re going to do.” Lex relaxed sitting back in her chair. “And as for the baby’s powers I’d rather not tamper with it. I’m more curious to see what it’ll get considering Incredible’s super strength is getting mixed with Mirage’s pathetic excuse for super powers.”

“That’s a good idea. It’s probably best we don’t tamper too much with its DNA. Veetra’s already putting a little bit of me and you in there. Don’t want to do too much and make something go wrong.” Lex explained as they both gathered up their things and turned the main computer off. Buddy nodded and took her by the hand as they made their way to their room for the night.

Neither of them could sleep too anxious from worrying about Veetra and Avian leaving in the morning and they just laid in bed staring into each other in silence. After what seemed like forever they finally fell asleep some time before the sun came up.

The next few days seemed to drag on forever as Buddy and Lex awaited each new update from Veetra. Avian had set up a fake clinic and Veetra made sure that a flyer to it made its way to Mirage who quickly made an appointment as soon as she could. Luckily for them she didn’t even question as to why they were a free clinic extremely eager for a way out of the mess she had gotten herself into. Veetra knew that Mirage didn’t know who she was but disguised herself anyways just in case.

They were finally on their way back and Lex and Buddy were prepping Veetra’s lab for their arrival. Buddy wouldn’t stop checking the fluid levels on everything and Lex had to grab him by the hand and drag him out of the lab to meet them in the hangar. Buddy and Lex watched Veetra oddly as she exited the jet with Avian on her heels. Veetra was dressed in a doctor’s lab coat and scrubs and had her hair back in a headband making her look somewhat normal compared to how she usually dressed.

Everyone followed her to the lab and she put the embryo from its protective transportation tube into the larger one in the lab and she quickly typed away on the computer as she activated the monitoring system for it. She quickly grabbed two syringes and turned to Lex and Buddy.

“I need blood from both of you.” She said and Lex held her arm out for her and Buddy groaned. “You get to go first.” She smiled and turned to him. He looked back at her with a rather un-amused look on his face and removed his left glove and she quickly drew some blood from the back of his hand.

“Ow, geeze at least let the rubbing alcohol dry first.” He whined.

“Oh don’t be such a baby.” She rolled her eyes as she took a vial of blood from Lex. “Ok that’s all I need from you two. I just need to separate the DNA and all that fun stuff for now.” She shooed them out of her lab.

“She really gets into her work doesn’t she?” Buddy asked watching her play with a microscope before the airlock shut behind them.

“Yep.” Was Lex’s simple reply and they both let out a long breath and stared at each other for a few moments as they thought of things that they could do to help pass the time.

“Yeah… what the hell are we supposed to do? I have no idea what to do with myself other than to start freaking out. Lex we’re going to have a kid! Me and you…” He blurted out as they walked down the corridor.

“I know. We need to come up with a plan, any plan. A plan for the kid. How we’re going to raise it and how we’re going to use it to get our revenge. Anything. I am clueless as to what we’re going to do. I’ve never been one to make the big plan. That was always you and I just followed. Heck what are we going to do for the next nine months waiting for the kid to be born?” Lex asked as they blindly walked through the base together.

“I don’t know… but I know I want your help with this plan. It’s going to be _us_ from now on, everything, our plans and inventions will be me and you together and for right now that’s all that matters.” He said pulling her close kissing her gently on the forehead. She nuzzled into his chest wrapping her arms around him.

“Us…” She said happily and smiled up at him.

“Oh get a room.” Travis said behind them and they both turned to him with a glare then kissed and turned back to him making him roll his eyes. “I know one thing you two could do to help pass the time.” He said and they both looked to him desperate for something to help them through the next nine months.

“Do tell.” Buddy practically demanded.

“You should go on a vacation together. A _real_ one. Get out of the base and go somewhere far from here and just enjoy being together for once. No inventing no scheming. Just a normal vacation like _normal_ people do, I promise it’ll be good for you.” He explained and they both looked to each other.

“We do normal things…” Lex said trying to come up with something.

“We have lunch and dinner together and hang out on the beach sometimes, that’s normal.” Buddy shot at him.

“Yes but you’ve only done that here or at Nomanisan and that’s it. You need to go to the beach around other people and deal with the annoyance of other people like everyone else has to. You do realize that the only people that have seen you two together are me, Avian, Veetra, Mirage, and everyone else in this base, that’s it.” He explained hoping he could convince them to do something normal for once.

“And… what’s wrong with that?” Buddy asked raising a questioning eyebrow.

“You know what never mind. It’s just a suggestion.” Travis said shaking his head at them continuing down the corridor.

“It couldn’t hurt.” Lex pointed out shrugging her shoulders.

“I know… It’s just I’d rather we stay in hiding. I don’t want to risk the NSA knowing I’m still alive.” Buddy explained squeezing her hand in his.

“You’re right. It would be fun though… just go out like normal couples do. Go to the movies and dinner or go on a romantic cruise. Anything really…” Lex trailed off.

“I promise we will. Eventually.” He said kissing her on the forehead. “Hey I know what we can do. Let’s make you some rocket boots.” He smiled and they walked to the lab together.

They worked together building Lex her own pair of rocket boots and Buddy crossed the wires wrong making a large spark. He expected to be shocked by the electricity and was surprised when instead he got what felt like an energy boost from it.

“What the hell was that?” He asked out loud. “Why didn’t it zap me?”

“Oh, Avian didn’t tell you did he?” Lex smiled up at him. “He made it so the power source of your limbs would take in any electric shock or form of electricity and store it until you decide to release it.”

“You mean like what you did with that energy projector you almost electrocuted Mirage to death with?” He asked his eyes lighting up.

“Yes almost exactly like that. Only it’s more controlled.” She explained loving how excited he was about it.

“We should test it out.” He said excitedly.

“We will. Don’t worry.” She laughed.

They spent the rest of the day finishing Lex’s rocket boots and everyone ate dinner together in the kitchen. Lex and Buddy felt awkward at first not sure how or what to ask Veetra. They were both dying to know what Veetra had done to the baby but also didn’t want to know all at the same time wanting the outcome to be a surprise. They had decided that all they wanted to know was the sex of the baby when the time came and leave the rest to Veetra.

“So Lex told me you discovered the little upgrade I gave your power source. When are you going to test it out because I’d love to help.” Avian said breaking the odd silence.

“Most likely tomorrow.” He said poking at his potato.

“Soo the kid is all set up. I already finished combining DNA and all of that. Now all we have to do is wait. So what all do you want to know about it? I can tell you all kinds of things.” Veetra smiled ignoring the awkwardness and Avian’s attempt to make things less uncomfortable for Lex and Buddy.

“We decided we just want to know the sex. We want the rest to be a surprise.” Lex said squeezing Buddy’s hand under the table.

“Are you sure?” She asked leaning towards them and Travis rolled his eyes at her knowing she was making them uncomfortable on purpose.

“Yes we’re sure.” Buddy said with a glare making Avian look to Veetra with a scared look in his eyes.

“Ok.” She smiled sweetly and kissed Avian on the cheek. “Who’s ready for dessert?” She asked jumping up from her seat. “I made us all something special to celebrate our successful baby stealing!” She said pulling a large cake out of the fridge covered in chocolate frosting with a large white ‘S’ on the top.

“What’s in it?” Lex asked eyeing it.

“I’m not telling! It’s a secret! Chocolate surprise cake!” She said setting it on the table and taking everyone’s half empty plates replacing them with clean ones.

“Looks good to me.” Buddy smiled poking his finger into the frosting holding it out to Lex and she rolled her eyes at him before licking the frosting off. Veetra served a piece to everyone and everyone took a bite making satisfied noises.

Lex suddenly realized that she tasted strawberries and Syndrome’s eyes went wide along with Travis and Avian as they all realized what they tasted. Buddy was expecting to lose the ability to breathe any second and Lex was already prepping the epinephrine needle.

“What’s wrong?” Veetra asked looking rather confused as Buddy was surprised he could still breathe as he grabbed Lex by the wrist as she got ready to stab the needle into him.

“I’m fine.” He said as they all watched him in fear.

“Will someone tell me what’s going on?” Veetra asked staring at the needle in Lex’s hand.

“He’s allergic to strawberries.” Travis said watching Buddy closely.

“You mean he was. When I did my DNA work nothing said that he was allergic to anything. Something must’ve changed when you got torn up by the jet or when they put you back together.” She explained.

“Really?” Buddy said with a grin and took another bite of his cake. Lex watched him closely. “Lex I’m fine put the needle away.”

“I can’t help it.” She admitted slowly putting the epinephrine kit away in her pocket. He turned her to face him and put his hands on either side of her face and kissed her gently on the lips.

“I’m fine. The weirdo DNA girl even said so.” He said with a smile making Lex giggle and kiss him again.

“Ok.” She agreed and took another bite of hers.

“I’m so excited we’re having strawberry everything for the next week!” He said shoving a large bite in his mouth making Lex roll her eyes at him. Everyone finished their dessert while Avian and Buddy discussed how they wanted to test out his energy projection while Lex, Veetra, and Travis talked about possible ideas for a new Omni-Droid involving Avian’s mini Omni-Droid design. Everyone retired to bed after dessert.

The next day Lex had woken up to breakfast in bed, strawberry pancakes. She rolled her eyes at Buddy as he ate a big bite of his drenched in syrup.

Once they were dressed they went to down to the training area to meet Avian and started their tests on the energy projection in his artificial hand. After frying several goons and shorting out the power in half the base Syndrome finally decided to stop testing his new power.

“You need to be careful with that. Don’t want you to over load your power source and make your legs power down in the middle of a fight.” Lex warned scanning Buddy’s power levels over once more.

“I’ll be fine it’s not like I’ll be fighting Incredible anytime soon.” He laughed imagining all the things he could do in a fight against him now that he had his power projection and built in Zero Point Energy. Lex poked him in the face.

“Hey stop daydreaming. Travis said they were talking about you on the news want to watch?” She asked knowing he’d be curious about what they’d say about him.

“I’m curious if Incredible told them the truth. That he’s responsible for making me who I am.” He said knowing that he most likely wouldn’t. Plus it was another distraction, a distraction to keep his mind off the baby. He knew Lex was afraid to talk about it too. They walked hand in hand to the secondary lab where everyone was sitting watching the news report together.

“So far you’re an insane billionaire genius with no motive other than to destroy the supers.” Travis explained pointing up at the screen.

“That and no mention as to why you just so happened to save Incredible for last. So disappointing they never even mentioned how amazing the Omni-Droid was.” Avian frowned.

“Oh and you’re dead can’t forget that. Apparently your cape was sucked into the jet turbine and you got shredded with it and then exploded.” Veetra added with a smile.

“Thanks…” Buddy said dryly and took a seat pulling Lex into his lap.

They all sat and watched the whole segment. Of course they never mentioned how Incredible shunned Buddy away as a child thus making him who he was today. He was now labeled as a dead super genius bent on killing all supers.

“Well that was rather annoying.” Buddy said as they headed to the kitchen to make dinner. “Figures Incredible wouldn’t mention how he’s part of the reason I became a villain in the first place.” He shook his head.

“Of course they wouldn’t release that. I bet Incredible never even told his family about you. And I’m sure the NSA is all gung ho on making it so the supers can come out of hiding. Just think about it, now they’ve all retired and have families, _children_. A whole new generation of supers and they’re all probably babies or just starting high school.” Lex explained.

“Great that’s just what we need a bunch of young supers not even old enough to drive running around attempting to save the day…” Buddy rolled his eyes.

“It will happen eventually, but not until more villains decide to show themselves first.” Lex added.

“We can only hope…” Buddy smiled.


End file.
